Twilight Stephenie Meyer Bella moves into her dad’s house in Forks, Washington from Phoenix, Arizona so that her mom, Renee, will be able to travel with her new husband (minor league baseball player). She’s sad to leave the sun and warm weather behind, but is willing to make the sacrifice for her mom’s happiness. It is a little awkward between her and her dad, Charlie, because neither is really sociable. He bought her an old truck that she loves. Bella drives to school on her first day and goes into the main office. She is given a slip of paper to have each of her teachers sign and return at the end of the day. The first student to approach Bella is Eric, who shows her to her next class. In her trigonometry class, she meets Jessica, who invites Bella to sit at her lunch table. That is when Bella first notices the Cullen family. Five beautiful people who all sit together and were adopted by Dr. Cullen and his wife. Jessica explains that Emmett and Rosalie is a couple and Jasper and Alice are as well. She then points out that Edward is single, but doesn’t date. Edward stares at Bella and she tries to ignore him. Later that day, Bella finds out that she is in the same Biology class with Edward, and the only seat left in the class is right next to him. The entire time, Edward glares at her and edges as far away from her as he can. After class, he storms out. Mike notices the strange situation and uses it as a chance to introduce himself to Bella. He walks her to gym as that is also his next class. After school, Bella goes back to the office to turn in her slip. Edward is there trying to convince the secretary to change his schedule so that he would be in a different biology class. When he realizes Bella is there, he storms off again. Bella is left wondering how she offended him. Edward is absent the rest of the week and Bella wonders why. When he returns, she starts feeling ill. She dreads going to biology, but when she gets there, Edward starts being nice to her. They finish a lab (which Bella had already done at her old school) quicker than the rest of the students. Edward starts up a conversation and gets her to talk about why she left Phoenix. The next day, Bella wakes up to snow on the ground. She takes care getting to her truck and drives to school. When she gets there, she wonders why all of the ice didn’t give her any trouble while driving. She gets the tires and sees that Charlie had put snow chains on for her. The next thing she knows, a guy named Tyler is skidding on the ice and headed straight for her. She sees Edward across the lot with a concerned expression. The next thing she knows, Edward is between her and Tyler’s van. He keeps the car from crushing her, but refuses to acknowledge what really happened. The paramedics arrive and make Bella go to the hospital because Edward said she hit her head. While there, Edward promises to tell Bella what really happened if she promises not to tell anyone. She agrees, but he gets out of telling her. Charlie, who is also the police chief, comes to pick Bella up from the hospital. There is a ladies’ choice dance at school. Mike says that he’s waiting to give Jessica an answer in hopes that Bella will ask him. She tells him to go with Jessica. Edward speaks to Bella for the first time since the accident and ends up telling her that they shouldn’t be friends. They get into an argument over it, and Bella stomps off. After school, Eric asks Bella to the dance and she turns him down. Edward blocks the road so that Bella is stuck behind him. Tyler uses the opportunity to ask Bella to the dance as well. Again, she declines. Edward uses Bella’s excuse of going out of town to offer her a ride. Eventually, she agrees. Later that day at lunch, Edward is sitting alone in the cafeteria. Jessica points out that he is staring at Bella again. He calls her over with his finger and she goes to find out what he wants. They talk about Bella’s friends, including how Mike is jealous of their exchange. Edward tries to warn Bella again about how he isn’t any good for her and gets her to explain one of her theories about what he is. When her reply indicates a superhero, he mentions that he might be the bad guy. When the lunch crowd dwindles down, Bella gets ready to go to class. Edward informs her that he is skipping. Bella soon finds that she should have skipped class as well. In biology, they are doing blood typing. Bella starts to get woozy at the first sight of blood. Mike offers to walk her to the nurse, but Edward takes over halfway there. He then gets her out of gym class and takes her home. On the way, she invites him to the beach party at La Push her friends have been planning. He turns her down, saying that he and Emmett are going camping. That weekend, Bella goes to La Push with her friends. While they are there, they run into some of the locals that live on the Quileutes’ reservation, including Jacob Black (Charlie’s best friend’s son). A girl named Lauren from Bella’s group who really seems to have a grudge against her teases her about Edward not coming. One of the other boys makes a comment that the Cullens don’t come to their beach. Bella takes a walk with Jacob flirts with him to get him to tell the story of why the Cullens aren’t allowed in La Push. He explains that the legend says that they are vampires. They have a treaty that won’t allow them on their land. Technically, Jacob breaks the treaty by telling Bella the story. When Bella gets home, she goes straight to bed only to have a nightmare about Edward. The next morning, she researches vampires online. When she doesn’t come up with anything that matches Jacob’s story, she decides to go for a walk. She goes deep into the woods and sits there for a while, thinking about what Edward is. She goes back home. The next day at school, Bella is in a good mood because it is sunny. However, her mood quickly drops because Edward isn’t there. Mike asks her out on a date, and she declines on account of Jessica’s feelings (since he’s taking her to the dance). After school, Bella goes outside to read. She starts flipping through the works of Jane Austen, but gets frustrated when the names of the characters remind her of Edward. She ends up falling asleep outside. When she wakes up, she starts getting dinner ready and asks Charlie if she can go to Port Angeles with Jessica and Angela (quiet, shy girl) the next night for dress shopping. In Port Angeles, Bella helps Jessica and Angela pick out dresses for the dance. Bella gets up the nerve to ask Angela if the Cullens miss a lot of school (yes), and Angela leaves it at that. When the shopping is done, Jessica and Angela decide to go to the bay while Bella stops by the bookstore. However, when she arrives there, she realizes that it is not quite what she was looking for. She starts wandering around, but ends up getting lost in a more industrial district. She starts being followed by four men. She tries to loose them, but too late she figures out that they were herding her. Just as she is about to try to fight them off using self defense, Edward pulls up in his Volvo and tells her to get in the car. He makes her talk to calm him down. When the finally get to the restaurant where Bella was supposed to meet her friends, they are just walking out. Edward asks if he can take Bella home and her friends agree. They go into the restaurant, and Edward pays off the hostess for a private table. The waitress flirts with him, but he is oblivious. They talk about Edward’s telepathy and how he was following Bella around. On the ride back, they get into more specifics about Edward’s vampirism. The next morning, Edward picks Bella up for school, forcing his siblings to take Rosalie’s flashy BMW. Bella’s friends are shocked to see her arrive with Edward. Jessica says that she wants details from the previous night. Bella begs Edward to tell her what her friend is looking for. They decide that telling people that they are dating is the easiest answer. Edward says he will be listening to the conversation to see how Bella feels about him. When the conversation occurs, Bella throws in her own cryptic messages for Edward. At lunch, Edward and Bella sit together again. Edward changes their plans of going to Seattle that weekend so that he can show her why he can’t go in the sun. They continue talking about his life as a vampire. The next morning, after Charlie is already gone for his fishing trip, Edward arrives without a car at Bella’s. They get in her truck and she drives, following his directions. They get out by a path that goes through the woods, but don’t end up taking it. Eventually, they end up in a meadow. Edward slowly comes out into the sun and sparkles. Bella is completely taken back by surprise. They sit together and Edward shows off why she should be afraid of him. He regains his composure after a while and explains how Bella smells better than any other human to him. When it is time for them to go back, Edward puts Bella on his back and runs through the woods back to the truck. Bella feels a little woozy and has to sit for a while. Edward kisses her and she is passionately drawn in. However, Edward is still trying to get used to controlling himself around her and pushes her away. They head back to Bella’s and she invites him in. When Charlie comes home, Edward leaves quickly. Bella hurries up to her room to find him waiting there for her. They spend the night together mostly talking, and Bella eventually sleeps. When Bella wakes up, Edward is in her room, ready to take her to meet his family. She gets ready and they take off. Carlisle and Esme greet her first and seem pleased with her. Alice is extremely friendly and Jasper is a little standoffish because Edward warned him. Edward plays the piano for her and then shows her around the house. In Carlisle’s office, he explains his father’s history (son of a preacher who encouraged witch-hunts. Carlisle was more patient and found vampires, who ended up biting him and leaving him for dead). He then takes her to his room where they tease each other. Alice and Jasper come along to ask them if they want to play ball that night since there will be a storm. They agree to go with them. Edward takes Bella home so that she can prepare Charlie for meeting him. However, Billy and Jacob are at the house instead. Bella sends Edward away so that she can talk to them. She informs Billy that what the Cullens are is none of his business, and neither is telling Charlie. He agrees, and before he leaves, he tells her to be careful. Charlie arrives and Bella explains that she is going to play baseball with Edward and his family. Edward arrives shortly after and they are off. After a ride in Emmett’s Jeep and a short run, they are in the clearing where the Cullen family plays baseball. They start the game with Esme as referee and Bella just watching. When Alice freezes, they all know that something is wrong. There are three vampires on their way to check out the game. When they arrive the leader, Laurent, seems to be interested in the vampires’ “vegetarian” way of life. Edward tries to keep Bella out of sight, but one of them, James (who is a tracker), catches Bella’s scent. Edward, Alice, and Emmett get her out of there quickly. It takes a lot of convincing from Bella for Edward to take her home instead of continuing to drive on. Once at the house, Bella acts like she broke up with Edward. She packs and then tells her father that she can’t be stuck in Forks for the rest of her life. She storms off and gets into her truck where Edward is waiting for her. After driving a little ways, Edward switches spots with her. They go to the Cullen’s house where Bella switches clothes with Esme because Rosalie refuses. Edward, Carlisle, and Emmett take off in the jeep; the read-headed female follows them. Esme and Rosalie take off and James follows them. Alice and Jasper take Bella and head down to Phoenix. While waiting, Alice explains to Bella that the vampires have venom that they release when they bite. After a person is infected, it takes them about three days to become a vampire if they survive the transition. A little later, Alice sees James in a dark room watching TV, but she can’t tell where it is. Edward calls and tells Bella that he is coming for her and they will be going far away together. Alice sees a room and starts sketching it. Bella recognizes it as a dance studio around the corner from her mom’s home in Phoenix, and this lets them know that James is in the city. Bella calls her mom, warning her not to come home. Shortly after, Alice’s phone rings and she gives it over to Bella because her mom sounds distraught. Bella starts telling her mom that she is fine, but after some silence on the other end, she is greeted by James. He tells her that he has her mom and that Bella must meet him alone to keep her safe. Bella writes a note to Edward and tells Alice that it is for her mom. Alice and Jasper take Bella to the airport to meet Edward. She asks Jasper to take her for food and then says that she needs to use the bathroom. She slips away and onto a shuttle bus heading for the Hyatt. From there, she takes a taxi home. She finds that her mom’s apartment is a wreck. Heading down to the dance studio, she hears her mom’s panicked voice again. When she continues to listen, she realizes that the voice is coming from a home movie rather than her actual mom. She is relieved that her mom is safe. James attacks her and films the entire incident. He reveals that the last one that got away from him was Alice. Edward comes to the rescue. Jasper and Emmett drag James away to kill him. Carlisle tries to help Bella, but Edward has to suck the venom out of Bella’s hand where James bit her. The next thing Bella knows, she is lying in the hospital in extreme pain. Edward explains what happened and that their cover story is that she fell out of a window. When her mom arrives, she offers to have Bella move to Florida with her and Phil. Bella declines in favor of staying in Forks. Her mom is worried about her staying for a boy, but Bella explains that there are other reasons as well. When alone again, Edward and Bella discuss their future. Edward refuses to turn Bella. Bella refuses to be without Edward. He promises to stay with her as long as it is safe for her. Some time later, Bella spends the day getting all dressed up by Alice. She thinks that Edward has changed her mind about changing her, but it turns out that he is taking her to the prom. While he wants her to live out life as she normally would, she protests the entire thing. He promises not to leave her side all night. While they are dancing, Jacob Black approaches them. Edward gives them some space and Jacob explains that his dad sent him to tell Bella that they will be watching. Bella appreciates the gesture. She spends the rest of the night with Edward.

StargazerClaudia Gray SUMMARY: Bianca sneaks into the headmistress’ house, trying to find out why Mrs. Bethany is allowing human students into the school. She finds a couple of applications (one accepted, one rejected) but can’t see much difference between the two students. She sneaks back out of the house and into the school. She sees a girl looking into the great hall. The girl disappears and Bianca almost convinces herself that it was just her reflection. Bianca watches the students coming in from her parents’ apartment window. Eventually, she goes down for orientation and starts seeing people she knows. Balthazar tells her about his summer working. When snobby Courtney approaches them, Bianca gets a little snippy. They listen to Mrs. Bethany give the same speech as last year, except she asks the vampires to be nice to the humans. Bianca goes up to her dorm room and spends some time with her new roommate: Raquel. Raquel tried everything to get out of coming back, but her parents refused any alternative. On the grounds, Bianca meets up with Vic, who gives her a letter from Lucas, and they make plans to hang out later. Bianca reads the letter from Lucas. He knows that he should let her go her own way and be with her own kind, but he still loves her. He tells her to meet him at the train station in Amherst the first weekend of October if she still wants him too. Later that night, Bianca and Raquel are looking at the constellations in the sky. Vic and his new vampire roommate, Ranulf, join them. Wondering why students aren’t allowed to have cars, Bianca has to come up with a plan to get to Amherst. She also has to carefully plan her feedings from her thermos. During one of those, she hears a weird crackling noise and thinks that she sees something, but is interrupted by Courtney. She tells her parents and Raquel that she will be going out into the woods to watch a meteor shower that Friday night. Balthazar offers to help her with her fencing, but she has to turn him down for her trip to see Lucas. As she’s getting ready to leave the dorm, Raquel asks her about her telescope. Bianca forgot to plan that part, so she says she has a smaller one that she is taking out. She sneaks into the back of a laundry truck to get to Amherst. Upon arriving in Amherst, Bianca starts walking around the town square. A young looking vampire girl approaches her and asks to walk with her. Bianca agrees to walk her out of town square. The vampire tells Bianca that a guy is following her and she is trying to loose him. Bianca agrees to let her stay until the reach the train station. When Lucas shows up to meet her, the vampire reveals that Lucas was the one following her. Bianca tries to tell each of them to back off, but there is a scuffle. Lucas grabs Bianca and they run. Lucas tries to draw the vampire off of Bianca by hiding her and running off. The vampire stops where Bianca is hiding to make sure she is okay. Bianca tells her that she already knows that Lucas is Black Cross. The other vampire leaves and Lucas’ mom, Kate, and Dana show up. Eduardo, Lucas’ stepdad, gives him some guff for his actions when they get to where the Black Cross members are holed up. Lucas and Bianca are only able to spend together before Lucas is told that he has to go back out on the hunt. They think that the young looking vampire girl is part of a deadly gang. Dana explains to Bianca that most Black Cross members are sort of vagabonds. Bianca decides to go on the hunt to stop them from killing the innocent vampire. The whole Black Cross group goes out to where they last saw the vampire. Lucas and Bianca head in the direction that Lucas’ night vision saw her go off in. They end up in the blood bank of a hospital and find her in a body bag. They try to tell her that she’ll be safe from them and get information on the vampire gang that has been doing all of the killing. Before she can tell them anything, Kate and Dana show up. The vampire gets away, but ends up stabbing Dana with a scalpel first. They get back to the hide out to take care of her. Lucas and Bianca are allowed to spend the day together in town, so they do. They decide to meet again in Riverton next month, and Lucas takes Bianca back to Evernight. Balthazar catches Bianca in the act during her return to Evernight. He is completely set on telling everyone what is going on until she mentions how Lucas helped her save a very young looking vampire. Balthazar asks about the vampire and realizes from the description that it is his sister, Charity. After a week of the two hoping the other won’t spill their secret, they decide to make a deal. Bianca will help Balthazar track down his sister through the Black Cross. Balthazar will pretend to date Bianca so that he can take her out to meet Lucas. Bianca goes up to the records room to try to figure out why Mrs. Bethany is now allowing human students to attend Evernight. She drains a mouse and then the room starts to get really cold. A wraith (ghost) appears and manifests itself in the glass, telling her “stop.” She asks Raquel if she believes in ghosts, but Raquel yells at her and starts avoiding her. Bianca asks Balthazar and he tells her that they are real. They come up with a story Bianca was waiting for Balthazar in the records room for some alone time and he tells Mrs. Bethany. This will hopefully take care of the wraith problem as well as start the rumors of their new relationship. Vic approaches Bianca about cheating on Lucas. He says he doesn’t care as long as she’s happy and tells Lucas what is going on. Mrs. Bethany confronts Bianca about keeping the wraiths a secret. She then goes to change for dinner with her parents and when Raquel starts asking questions (trying to become friends again), she flips out on her. At her parents, Bianca and Balthazar determine that they will go to the Autumn Ball again together. After dinner, Balthazar explains that he knows she is with Lucas and not him. When Bianca gets back to her room, Raquel apologizes and explains that there is a ghost at her parent’s house that rapes her. They make up. Bianca and Balthazar make plans for the Riverton trip. They decide that he will keep Raquel entertained while Bianca slips off to meet with Lucas. They feel a little queasy going over the river, but make it safely into town. Bianca goes off, saying that she’s going to say hi to her parents. She waits for Lucas, but is greeted by Dana instead. Dana explains that Lucas is stuck in lockdown. She is there to plan their next meeting. Raquel approaches them, and they pretend like they are life-long friends from Bianca’s hometown. After a while, they head back to Evernight. Bianca’s mom helps her get ready for the dance. Balthazar picks her up and they proceed to the great hall. They dance for a little while before sneaking off to the records room. They are unable to find any connections between the human students and the vampires. They return to the great hall and resume dancing. Balthazar is pricked by some girls dress and he offers the blood to Bianca (vampire flirting, gives the recipient insight to the other’s feelings). They go back to dancing, but suddenly, it’s very cold and everyone has trouble standing on ice. The wraith drop shards of ice and writes out “OURS.” Everyone is left scared and Bianca wonders what the wraith is laying claim to. Mrs. Bethany explains the mythology of vampires and wraiths (the first murdered man was split into two: body and soul. The vamps are the body; the wraiths are the soul). They all decide that they will have to get rid of the wraiths. Balthazar uses this opportunity to ask Bianca’s parents if he can take her off campus. They happily agree and get permission for them from Mrs. Bethany. Balthazar borrows the driver’s ed car to take Bianca into Riverton. Lucas is not happy to see her arrive with the vampire, but eventually understands that the act is a necessity. They break into the observatory and start making out. Lucas thinks they are about to have sex and Bianca thinks he wants her to change him into a vampire. Lucas tells her that he never wants to be a vampire and she feels rejected. Making plans to meet up again in January, the couple goes their separate ways. Back at the school, the students are speculating about the ghosts. Vic informs Bianca that most of the human students have already had experiences with ghosts, so they weren’t surprised to see them at Evernight. Bianca takes Balthazar to her parents on Christmas Eve. The two get to talking alone in her room and find out that Mrs. Bethany allowed the human students to attend Evernight so that she could track down the wraiths. Classes start up again and some of the vampire students don’t return. Courtney tries to make a big deal of seeing Balthazar looking for someone alone in Amherst, but Bianca doesn’t react. Balthazar takes Bianca to Albion to meet up with Lucas to find Charity. Bianca tells Lucas that Mrs. Bethany is allowing human students because they are tied to wraiths. He says this doesn’t do them any good because it would get a different Black Cross group assigned to the area and they would be separated even more. They find where she has been staying and try to talk her out of hanging out with the nasty gang that has been killing people. She is very disagreeable and the gang is also there watching from outside. They barely get away in the truck and head back to town. Bianca and Balthazar are in such bad moods upon their return to Evernight that they just let people assume they are fighting. Bianca goes to stay with her parents for a night and asks what will happen if she doesn’t kill a human and become a vampire. They refuse to answer. Alone in her room, Bianca sees a wraith in the form of a girl. The wraith tells Bianca that she belongs with the wraiths rather than the vampires. Her parents walk in and her mom completely freaks out about the ghost, which leaves them. Balthazar confronts Bianca and asks her to practice fencing with him. They end up talking about Charity. Bianca wonders if his little sister has changed, and Balthazar points out that the dead don’t change. Mrs. Bethany lets her English class out early but makes Bianca stay behind. She says that she doesn’t think Bianca is learning from Balthazar taking her out on weekends because she talked to the ghost. Bianca, upset that her parents betrayed her, explains that she doesn’t understand the wraiths, but they said that she was like them. Mrs. Bethany suggests that they are trying to lure her over with kindness as Lucas had done. Balthazar and Bianca return to Amherst to meet with Lucas. They decide to split up to search for Charity. Bianca sees Courtney and decides to follow her all the way to her family’s house. Courtney catches her spying and they agree to keep each other’s secrets until Balthazar and Lucas come up. Courtney tries to run as everyone else tries to explain the situation. They start to talk and then Charity stakes Courtney. Charity explains that she kills humans before beheading Courtney. Bianca and Lucas get into a huge fight because neither of them has made any changes to their lives to be together. Lucas stalks off and Bianca leaves with Balthazar to burn Courtney’s body. Bianca mopes in her room until spring. Raquel tries to get her out and back to normal, but Bianca is still trying to get over Lucas. Raquel even offers for the whole group to go star gazing. Bianca turns her down to help Balthazar with a project on video games. Eventually, they drink from each other. Bianca realizes that she is a lot like Balthazar’s wife from his human days. They are about to have sex when an angry wraith appears. The wraith freezes Bianca and tells her that it must kill her to protect her and the promise must not be broken. Someone stabs the wraith with an iron rod and Bianca is freed. Raquel takes care of her that night. The next day, Bianca goes to talk to her parents about why the wraiths are after her. They try to change the subject, but Bianca forces it out of them. The two vampires needed help creating Bianca. The wraiths possessed them briefly and she was on the way. However, the wraiths said that when Bianca came of age, she would be theirs. Bianca states that she is leaving and tells her parents not to come after her. Mrs. Bethany gives up her house to Bianca to keep her safe from the wraiths, figuring that the copper roof will be enough protection. On the night of the blue moon, Bianca goes out to the gazebo to watch it. She is surprised to find Lucas there. They apologize to each other, explaining what has been going on. They make plans for Bianca to run away with him on the last day of school when there will be so many parents picking up students they will have some camouflage. Bianca stops paying attention to what is going on in school completely. Mrs. Bethany comes to the cottage house to collect some things and Charity arrives shortly after asking for sanctuary. Bianca’s father approaches her, telling her how she is hurting her mom. However, when her father still won’t tell her what will happen if she doesn’t kill, she storms off again. Mrs. Bethany comes to collect Bianca in the middle of the night to confront her accuser. It turns out that Charity has told Mrs. Bethany about Bianca and Balthazar’s contact with Lucas to track her. Bianca is ready to be expelled, as Mrs. Bethany claims this is an unforgivable offense. Charity eventually spills that she convinced the Black Cross that they are killing their human students that night. The Black Cross is coming to save the humans. Mrs. Bethany pulls the fire alarm to alert the students. Balthazar heads for the boys’ dorm while Bianca tries to get to the girls. However, she is blocked by the battle. Her mom and Dana are fighting and both tell her to get out. Eduardo tells the Black Cross to burn the building. Balthazar tries to drag her out, but she is determined to get to the girls’ dorm. She runs across the roofs to get there, and after a fall, finds that the dorm is in worse condition than the rest of the building. Lucas finds her there and they get out only to be confronted by Charity. Lucas is able to temporarily stake her on a tree branch, which gives them some time to get away. They witness Mrs. Bethany kill a Black Cross member and so does Raquel. They take her to the transport van that is waiting. Once they are in their safe house (a warehouse), they explain everything to Raquel, who wants in. Bianca also agrees to join Black Cross.Evernight:EvernightStargazerHourglassAfterlife

It is Bianca’s first day at Evernight Academy and she has decided to run away to make a statement to her parents who are teachers there. She grabs a few things and heads out into the woods to spend the day skipping her first classes. There is a shadow that starts following her. She runs and it chases her. Bianca is tackled by a guy named Lucas who was trying to save her from whatever she was running from. They talk about how neither of them wants to go to Evernight, but must face the inevitable. Lucas tells her about how his ancestor was kicked out for dueling his first week and he is there to restore the family name. Bianca heads back to the school and Lucas disappears. At orientation, Bianca is assigned a room. She hangs around to see if she can spot Lucas, but no luck. She goes up and meets Patrice, her roommate, and likes how business-like she is. One of her friends, Courtney, stops by and Bianca embarrasses herself trying to overcome her shyness. She ends up going back to her parent’s apartment in one of the towers of the school for dinner and to pack her things for the dorm. She is still upset about leaving her hometown for this place. Her parents try to make it all about her growing up, but Bianca knows it is about what they want for her. She takes a walk and then makes up with her parents. Bianca starts out her first day of school hanging with Patrice because she doesn’t know anyone else. She sees Lucas, but he acts like he doesn’t know her. She goes through her classes and seems to like most of her teachers (not Mrs. Bethany, the headmistress). Courtney comes along and invites Patrice and Bianca to a party in the woods. They accept. Later that night, they go together. Bianca stays off by herself and only talks to a guy from her history class (which her mom teaches) named Balthazar. She skips out when Courtney steals him away and runs into Lucas. He explains that he was avoiding her because she was hanging out with the cool kids, but he now realizes that she isn’t like them. They agree to see each other again soon and then sneak back into their respective dorms. Bianca argues with Mrs. Bethany over which folklore is the most known (vampires or ghosts) when she assigns Dracula. After class, Balthazar suggests a book to Bianca before running off to avoid Courtney. During lunch, Bianca approaches Vic for the first time to ask him where Lucas is. He points her in the right direction, and she finds Lucas coming out of Mrs. Bethany’s house that is on the grounds. He explains that he was making sure his mom signed the form to allow him into Riverton on free weekends. She finds this to be a reasonable excuse, especially when he says he wants to spend time with her there. Later that night, Bianca finds Raquel crying in the bathroom because she keeps dreaming about vampires (and hearing them on the roof). Bianca helps to calm her fears before they go back to their rooms. All of the out casted kids of Evernight can’t seem to get on the shuttle to Riverton fast enough. Vic saves a sit next to Bianca for Lucas and they ride into town together. They go to see an old movie. As it turns out, her parents are chaperoning the theater, but they decide to stay anyway. Afterwards, they go to a small pizza shop. Lucas explains his theory that Bianca’s parents don’t want her to learn about the world, but to be just like them. Some men come over because he raised his voice and tell him to be nice to Bianca. Lucas starts fighting them. Bianca storms out and Lucas follows, but she refuses to talk to him the entire way back. Raquel tries to reassure Bianca that she did the right thing (leave when a guy gets violent). Vic talks to Bianca to make sure they are still friends and to let her know that Lucas is moody because of what happened. Bianca starts spending a lot of time studying with Balthazar. After a school-yard type fight that Erich lords over Lucas, Balthazar asks Bianca to the Autumn Ball and she accepts. Bianca’s mom helps her get ready for the dance in the apartment. She meets Balthazar and they dance. Bianca finally feels like she fits in at Evernight, but then she remembers Lucas and how she doesn’t want to be like the rest of them. Balthazar takes her outside for some air and he asks who she is in love with. She tells him about Lucas and he understands that they are just friends. Lucas comes by and gets jealous. Bianca tries to send him away, but Balthazar gives her up to him. Bianca pleads for them to stay outside together and they start making out. She bites his neck before she can realize what is happening. Lucas passes out and she calls out for help. Courtney comes by and says it’s about time that Bianca became a vampire like the rest of them. Lucas is rushed off by Bianca’s dad. Her parents explain that he will be fine because vampires can’t drink enough to kill without making a real effort. Mrs. Bethany needs to punish Bianca so that others don’t get the impression that this behavior is okay. Her parents remind the headmistress that Bianca is a special case: born a vampire rather than made. Bianca agrees with Mrs. Bethany and takes her punishment. They come up with a story about how a crossbar hit Lucas in the head. He feels bad that it happened during their first kiss and Bianca feels bad about the entire situation, including lying. Bianca feels like she is living a double life. Lucas keeps questioning the incident until Bianca tells him to drop it. They spend some time together whenever they can, but she never lets anything go past kissing. On the next trip to Riverton, they check out the shops. Bianca admires a jet brooch and Lucas spends $200 on it. However, when they start getting ready to head back to the school, they discover that Raquel is missing. Bianca offers to stay behind and help look for her. She ends up finding her in the woods being stalked by Erich. He refuses to back off (and threatens to tell Raquel what they both are) until Bianca informs him that she is going to tell Mrs. Bethany what he did. Bianca is glad that Patrice is done dieting because it made her more vampiric (loss of reflection, can’t handle sunlight, etc.). Exams start coming up and Bianca is glad to have the distraction. However, she realizes that Erich isn’t done with Raquel, who informs Bianca that there are still noises coming from the roof of her dorm. Bianca sneaks out at night and goes to the spot above Raquel’s room. Erich is there. She bites him and can feel what he feels: anger, rage, and the taste for blood. Bianca threatens to tell Mrs. Bethany if he doesn’t leave. Erich agrees and takes off. Bianca starts to follow to make sure that he is actually leaving when she realizes that Lucas has been watching. The next day, Bianca goes to Lucas’ room to try to explain, but he has already left for Christmas break. She spends most of the time moping around missing him. When snow falls, she goes outside and walks with Balthazar. She asks him about his life when he was actually living. He tells her that he wishes he would’ve died with his family; vampires are jealous of the living and that is why they are cruel to them. Bianca sends an email to Lucas telling him the whole truth and asking him not to tell anyone. The students start returning from their break. Bianca sees Raquel first and is surprised that she came back. She also sees Erich giving her a strange smile. She notices Lucas and approaches him and Vic, but Lucas sneaks off in the middle of the conversation. Courtney comes to Patrice and Bianca’s room to tell them that Erich is missing. Raquel is happy to hear the news, but concerned at the school’s lack of concern. Bianca tries to explain it away before going to hide in a stairwell. Lucas comes to talk to her about what is going on. Bianca takes Lucas up beyond the staffing apartments to the storage area in a tower. Lucas says that he was shocked by all of the information that Bianca gave him. He tried to forget her, but he couldn’t. He tells her that he wants her no matter what. They make out and Lucas lets her bite him again. This time, he stays conscious. The next day, Lucas skips all of his classes. Vic comes to get Bianca to have her convince Lucas to go to the doctor. Lucas is going through the heightened senses just like Bianca. After a few days and a few tests, they decide to tell Bianca’s parents what happened. They are furious and tell Mrs. Bethany. She explains to the young couple that Lucas is marked as Bianca’s. He will be drawn to her and to becoming a vampire. She warns him to keep their secret, as it is also his secret now. Bianca and Lucas spend time researching vampire facts and history from some books that Mrs. Bethany gave them. Lucas joins Balthazar, Patrice, Bianca, and her parents for a quiet evening and starts asking some questions about how to kill vampires. When Bianca starts to tell the story of Lucas’ ancestor that went to Evernight, her parents and Balthazar realizes that Lucas is part of the Black Cross (vampire hunters). They attack him, but he gets away through the same window that his ancestor broke. Bianca is crushed by his betrayal. The group of vampires start looking around for what Lucas could have been after. Bianca points them in the right direction and they find out that he has been in their historic files and killed Erich. They start the hunt, but can’t get very far once they realize that he has already crossed the river. Bianca goes ahead while the others prepare to cross running water. After a little searching, Bianca finds Lucas hiding in the back of the antique shop. He explains that, just like her, he had to lie because that was what he was taught. His mother had signed him up for the Black Cross when he was born and there wasn’t anyway out. He tells her that he killed Erich because he was about to kill Raquel. He suggests that they run away until they can say their goodbyes and then he will send her back to her family. After he says that he will always love her no matter what, she agrees. On the bus to Boston, the lovers compare what they know about vampires, arguing whether or not they are all bad. They make it to their destination and realize that they don’t have anywhere to go. Bianca sells the brooch in a pawn shop and they get a motel room. The next morning, they are found by Lucas’ mom. Bianca gather her clothes and is carted off with Lucas to the rest of the Black Cross. His mother is angry that Lucas told Bianca about them. Then she asks if he figured out the vampires’ secret (why they are letting humans in now) and is disappointed that he didn’t. She meets the rest of the group and tries to get away from them, feeling uneasy. The door flies open and her parents are standing there. Balthazar shoots arrows inside the building and Bianca’s mom throws in a lighter. The place catches on fire. Bianca knows that the only way to keep everyone safe is to give herself up to the vampires. She goes to her parents and asks them to leave the Black Cross members alone. Mrs. Bethany reprimands them, but none of them go after their enemies. Back at Evernight, Bianca mopes around missing Lucas again. However, most of her friends and family forgave her for the whole (or at least what they know) situation. After a few weeks, Vic gives her an envelope that she knows is from Lucas. It has the brooch and a postcard promising that they will be together again.Evernight:EvernightStargazerHourglassAfterlife

The Summoning Kelley Armstrong Twelve years prior to the story, Chloe was being babysat by a girl named Emily. Emily went into the basement to get a can of pop, but couldn’t seem to find any. The babysitter asks for Chloe’s help. Chloe says that she is not allowed in the basement. She tells Chloe to come down and help her or else she will drag her down. Chloe goes down into the cellar and is scared by Mrs. Hobb, who welcomes her back. Chloe is woken up from her dream about the little girl in the basement by the housekeeper, Annette. She gets ready for school, remembering when her mother used to run down the stairs with her when she was little. Her mother died some time ago. She gets in the cab and talks with the driver about movies. She thinks she sees someone jump in front of the car, but no one is there. At school, Chloe calls her Aunt Lauren to ask if she ever lived in a house with a basement (only when she was really little). She goes to lunch with her friends and ends up leaving early to attend a film club meeting she had planned on skipping. She finds out that she is the only freshman to have a shot at possibly directing a short film. She sneaks out of the meeting early and realizes that she forgot her lunch bag. She goes back for it and her overactive imagination goes really wild in the dark theater. She thinks she hears children crying and sees a dark figure. She grabs her bag and runs out. A guy named Nate asks Chloe is she plans on going to the dance the next night. She says she is, and he says he will see her there. Another student runs into her and she drops her things. She bends down to pick them up and feels wetness. She goes to the bathroom and finds that she has gotten her first period. She breaks into the sanitary napkin dispenser and cleans up. She then decides to skip class and dye some red streaks in her hair. She hears someone crying in the bathroom, but can’t seem to find them. When she leaves, there is a janitor that starts yelling at her. She tries to run away from him, but ends up running into him. She sees that he is deformed from burns. He says that he wants to talk to her, but she keeps running. She gets to a window and a couple of teachers stop her. She fights one of them, trying to escape the melted janitor. The other teachers can’t see the custodian. They give her a shot. Aunt Lauren explains that since Chloe fought against one of the teachers, she has to spend two weeks in a group home for troubled kids. She goes through a whole bunch of tests from a mess of doctors, but no one seems to be able to tell her what is wrong with her. She doesn’t know if she’s going crazy. Aunt Lauren explains that they moved out of a house because Chloe was afraid of her imaginary friends in the basement. Chloe arrives at Lyle House, but is heavily sedated and everything is a blur. Her dad brings her a stuffed koala she hasn’t used in years, but she sleeps with it anyway. Chloe cries about how humiliated she is from the entire situation, wondering how she could ever face anyone from school ever again. Chloe wakes up and meets her roommate, Liz, who talks a lot. She shows Chloe around and points out the other female residence, Tori (bipolar?) and Rae (issues with fire). She explains that the boys are separated. While peeling carrots in the kitchen, Chloe is distracted by Simon (who seems nice). The boy introduces himself and his foster brother, Derek (who seems antisocial and rude). During lunch, Tori makes fun of Chloe and then Liz. The boys seem to be at least slightly interested that Chloe is seeing dead people. When she tries to go take a nap, a nurse stops her. She instead goes to the basement to help Rae with laundry. Rae explains that she has a harmless love for fire and that is why she is there. Chloe hides the other girl’s matchbox when a nurse comes down to send Rae back to class. Chloe hears a voice while in the basement. It tells her to open the locked door so that it can talk to her. She goes to the door, but it is locked. Derek finds her and asks her about it, but she just shrugs it off. Later, Chloe talks to her therapist, Dr. Gill, who tells her they think that she is schizophrenic. Chloe mentions how the other kids already know and she says that she will deal with Tori discretely so that she won’t know Chloe told her. While Chloe is trying to deal with her illness, Simon invites her outside to kick around a ball with him and Derek. When classes start up again, Chloe goes to peel potatoes and Liz throws a pencil at the tutor. The tutor starts making a scene about quiting. All of the kids work hard to make Liz feel better. Chloe goes with Rae to help with the laundry and they get to talking. Chloe tells her new friend about why she is there. Rae tells Chloe about her annoyance with how they label the kids. She also tells her about how Simon and Derek do not like to spend time with the “crazy” kids. They seem to think they are better than the rest of them and will ditch out of group activities as quickly as they can. Liz wakes Chloe in the middle of he night to ask her to try a séance. Liz thinks that she has a poltergeist following her and that it does things to protect her when she gets mad. She has tried telling it to stop, but it won’t listen. So she wants Chloe to tell it. Chloe doesn’t agree until things start flying around the room. Before they can get started, the nurses come in and sedate Liz, apologizing to Chloe for the inconvenience. Tori thinks Chloe did something to Liz, but Chloe explains that she is not the one that told Liz that she saw dead people. Tori is shocked. Liz is taken away and Chloe is given sleeping pills. Later that night, Chloe finds Liz back in their room, and Liz tells her about the dream she had where there were doctors around her, operating on her. Chloe offers to do the séance, and Liz agrees. However, they both get freaked out when Chloe’s hand goes through Liz’s. Chloe tries to deal with Liz being gone. Simon offers to listen to her talk about it, but she’s trying not to think about it. Her school sent some work for her to do, but she has trouble concentrating. Peter, the youngest in the house, is taken home by his parents. While writing an email (that she decides not to send) to her friend, Chloe decides to look up the janitor she saw at her school. Derek walks in and asks if that is the guy she saw. She denies it, and he types in necromancer, telling her to read up on that to learn something useful. There are a variety of definitions, all having to do with the dead. Derek sends a note to Chloe (saying it is from Simon) to meet him in the laundry room. She goes and pretends like Derek and Simon want her to play an RPG with them. Derek tries to tell her that he is serious about necromancy, but she refuses to listen. When she tries to leave, Derek grabs her and throws her. Chloe runs back up to her room and sees the marks on her arm from where he grabbed her. She approaches Rae about looking at Simon and Derek’s files. Rae explains her experiences with the other tenants of Lyle House. Simon and Tori have always snubbed her, but she’s okay with it because everyone else has been nice. She thinks that Chloe and Simon like each other. Chloe explains that she’s scared of Derek and that is why she wants to check him out. Chloe and Rae sneak into Dr. Gill’s office and make copies of Derek’s file (Simon doesn’t have one). As they are going back to their room, they hear someone coming and go to the kitchen to pretend like they are just getting a snack. Derek comes in and takes some food as well. They go their separate ways. Chloe reads that Derek was adopted by Simon’s dad at five, but has no known history before that. He is there for his violent episodes. Aunt Lauren comes to take Chloe out for breakfast. Wondering how her niece is getting along, she asks about the other kids. When Chloe stammers, Aunt Lauren guesses that there is a problem with Derek. Chloe tries to downplay the whole ordeal, but her aunt won’t hear it. She goes to complain. Tori is back to her normal self and accuses Rae of burning her. Simon tells her to get a life. Derek is taken in for a special conference before lunch. Afterwards, while Chloe is taking out the trash, Simon confronts her. She shows him the marks that Derek left on her arm and tells him that she didn’t mean to tell anyone what had happened. Simon apologizes for his brother. Derek comes along and tries to get Simon to leave Chloe alone. He keeps hinting at something, and Chloe says that she doesn’t want to know. Simon arranges a secret meeting with Chloe through Nintendo DS communication. They both head outside while Derek is in the shower. Simon tries to explain that Derek isn’t messing with Chloe by saying that she is a necromancer. He shows her how he can levitate a basketball. While she is checking for strings or any other tricks, Simon grabs Chloe’s hand. Tori comes out and catches them like that together. Later that night, Chloe is waken up by a ghost that wants her to go up into the attic. Chloe goes up into the attic, leaving the lights off so that she won’t get caught. The ghost from the basement tells her that he is being blocked somehow and that she needs to open the door in the basement. He disappears and Liz is there, talking about the séance. Mrs Talbot comes in and says that Chloe is not as cured as she thought she was. Back in her room, Rae gets angry that Chloe lied to her about actually seeing ghosts. The next morning, the doctors talk to Chloe about her backward progress. She is now being monitored with urine tests to make sure that she is taking her medication. Derek approaches her and tells her to meet him and Simon in their room (using the excuse of a math tutor) for the explanation. Chloe apologies to Rae for not telling her the truth and explains that it was because she didn’t believe it herself at first. While in the basement, they decide to open the door. When they are unable to, Chloe goes up for the key. Derek gives it to her, and she head back to the basement. They find a small closet with a dirt crawl space in it. Rae goes back upstairs for a flashlight and they search the space. They only find some old tax files. In their room, Simon explains the different races of supernaturals to Chloe (Necromancers, Sorcerers, witches, half-demons, shamans, and other rare types). He goes on to tell Chloe that Derek has a sort of superman gene: super strength and senses. Derek explains that the need to get Chloe off of the medication. He also says that he overheard the doctors talking about Lyle House not being right for Chloe. Chloe asks when she will be able to talk to Liz, but the nurses tell her not yet. She wonders if Liz is a shaman and she is seeing her because she astral projects. Derek gives Chloe a jar to store her urine in. Since she has already taken the meds, she can dole it out over a few days and they won’t know that she stopped taking the pills. Tori’s mother (who is on the Board for Lyle House) comes for a visit. Chloe sneaks off to here the conversation between mother and daughter. Tori’s mother is embarrassed that her daughter is there and disappointed that she isn’t better already. Later, Tori apologizes and offers to show Chloe where there is a jewelry box hidden in the crawl space. While down there in the dark, Tori beats up Chloe for stealing her life. Chloe wakes up bound and gagged. She hears a ghost and concentrates. It tells her to stop, but she can’t. A corpse that she reanimated comes after her. Derek arrives and tells her that she has to set the souls free. She concentrates and is eventually able to release them. They are caught coming out of the crawlspace and the nurses think that they were fooling around. Not even Aunt Lauren will listen to Chloe. The two are warned that if anything else happens between them, one of them will be transferred. Chloe refuses to talk to Derek about what happened. When Simon comes around, they start talking, but end up on the topic of zombie movies. Derek comes in and berates Simon for being lazy, mentioning how Chloe is in trouble and there dad might be as well. Simon and Chloe leave him. They go outside and Simon explains that Derek has a plan to get Simon out of Lyle house to go find their dad. He tells her that Derek can’t go because he’s worried about what might happen if he did. Chloe decides that she is going to runaway with Simon so they can all get the help the actually need. Chloe confronts Derek about setting her up to be transferred so that Simon would want to help her and leave to go find their dad. He admits it, but denies sending Tori after her. He tries to make it seem like he is trying to help her, but she tells him that she knows it isn’t true. Later that night, Chloe wakes Derek up, asking for his help. Derek seems like he is getting sick. She wants to know how to talk to a specific ghost. He tells her that she would need a personal effect or the body. They go to the crawlspace to talk to the ghosts who are buried there. They meet the first ghost that Chloe ran into down there. He was a necromancer and followed Chloe from the hospital she was in. The house is blocked from ghost from ghosts, so he has trouble communicating. He tells them that the sorcerer who built the house experimented on supernaturals. Chloe summons a witch who was one of Lyle’s experiments. She tells her that their situations are unrelated and to stop summoning her. Derek and Chloe go outside the house to check out escape routes. They decide either the business or industrial districts would be best to hide in. The next morning, Rae wakes Chloe up to tell her what is really wrong with her. When she gets mad, she burns things with her hands. She wants to go with Simon and Chloe on their escape. Chloe gets Simon alone to talk with him. He tells Chloe that Derek had crippled a guy saving him from that same guy with a switchblade in his hand. Chloe tells Simon about Rae. Simon says that he really just wanted it to be him and Chloe, and then Derek comes out. Chloe tells him about Rae. They all decide they should go. Chloe starts packing for their departure later that night. She get Liz’s sweatshirt from Tori and says goodbye to the mean girl that thinks they are all plotting against her. They get ready to go, trying not to be suspicious. When Simon says that Derek isn’t feeling well, Chloe takes him some water and pain killers. She’s worried that Derek won’t be well enough to help them and hoping that Rae really is a half-demon. When Chloe and Rae meet up with Simon, he tells them that his brother is missing. Chloe sends them ahead and promises to find Derek. Simon tries to argue, but she insists that Simon get free because his father is their only hope. Chloe finds Derek behind the shed, shifting into a wolf. He asks Chloe not to go yet, and she complies. He doesn’t turn completely. Dr. Gill comes out and Chloe tries to cover for everyone by saying that she was making out with Derek again. She already knows that they are escaping, but wants to know the secrets that Lyle unlocked with his experiments. She traps Chloe, who is freed by Derek, and they run to meet Simon and Rae. There are several people out looking for them. They make it to a warehouse, but are followed in. The head doctor, Davidoff, promises that if Derek turns himself in, he won’t be in trouble. Derek refuses when the threats start. He finds them a way out. They hide under a tarp until everyone is inside and then go find Simon and Rae. It isn’t long before they are tracked down again and have to split up to find an exit out of another warehouse. Chloe sees a ghost’s suicide and shrieks. Derek and Simon find her just as Rae lets out a loud whistle, alerting everyone of where she is. Derek and Simon send them off to an abandoned warehouse off in the distance where they will all meet up later. Chloe and Rae speculate whether or not the boys will come for them. Chloe really needs a doctor to stitch up her arm, so they decide to go to her Aunt Lauren. They get the tranquilizer dart that Derek had yanked out of his arm and go to her house. They tell her most of the truth (not that they actually have superpowers) and she gets all fired up. However, upon arriving at the hospital, Aunt Lauren reveals that she knows about all of the supernaturals. Chloe wakes up in a secure room. Realizing that she still has Liz’s hoodie on, she uses everything she has to contact her. Liz doesn’t realize that she’s dead.

SUMMARY: Max and her family (Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel) are only 98% human. They grew up in The School (a science lab they consider a prison) which was guarded by vicious Erasers (part human, part wolf men that can transform into beastly creatures). Max is running through the woods being chased by Erasers when she comes to a cliff. She lets herself fall off and down before opening her wings. She flies into the sun to prevent the Erasers from shooting her out of the sky. Max wakes up from the dream. Max (the oldest) and her family of bird kids live alone in a house on a cliff. Jeb Batchelder had taken care of them at first, but he disappeared and they assume that he is dead. Max has taken over the responsibility of watching over the other five bird kids. Gasman (8) has digestive problems and is actually blood related to Angel. Iggy (14) is tall and blind, but a better cook then the others. Fang (14) is just a few months younger than Max and is very quiet. Nudge (11) likes to talk all the time. Angel (6) is Max’s favorite. She is also a mind reader that likes enclosed spaces. The kids go to pick wild strawberries. Gazzy uses his ability to sound like anyone to mock Max’s cooking. They are ambushed by Erasers and are outnumbered and overtaken. The bird kids are stronger than the average human, but the Erasers strength is greater than theirs. Ari (Jeb’s seven year old son) is one of the Erasers. He recognizes Max, but it takes her a minute to realize who he is. The Erasers take Angel and leave the rest. The flock agrees to go after her. Iggy hears an engine and they fly after it. Fang smashes the windshield with a tree branch, but then the passengers pull out guns. Max tries to get Angel back when the Erasers switch from car to helicopter. She ends up hanging on to the landing skid as they take off, but is unable to hold on when Ari points a rifle at her, saying that his group is the good guys. The rest of the flock returns home and start bickering with one another in frustration. They start brainstorming about where Angel is being taken, but the answer is obvious: The School. This is the place that doesn’t want the flock seen because it would expose the horrible genetic experiments they are doing on children. Iggy is currently blind because they tried to improve his night vision. The flock starts going through the papers that Jeb left behind. In a sealed envelope are plans and maps of The School. Iggy expresses his concerns about going after Angel (guns, helicopters, etc.). Max tells him he doesn’t get a choice in the matter: Iggy and Gazzy are staying home. Iggy’s blindness is too much of a liability in unfamiliar territory. Max is unsure whether The School also wants Angel’s brother, Gazzy, as much as her. Max, Fang, and Nudge start flying to Death Valley, California to rescue Angel. Nudge tells Max that she found Jeb’s file with her real name (Monique) on it, and the file gave some names and a city called Tipisco, Arizona (right on the California border). Max denies Nudge the idea of meeting her real parents until Angel is rescued. Angel is in a cage and tries to communicate with the two boy experiments in the cage next to hers. A couple of whitecoats come in, excited to see her, Subject 11. One cannot wait to section Angel’s brain. The two boys are relieved it is not them that they whitecoats came for. Max, Fang, and Nudge break into an empty ski cottage and find canned food. They sit and eat and decide to rest for a little while. Iggy and Gazzy are frustrated that they were left behind. They start making plans to protect the house in case the Erasers decide to come back for them. The whitecoat, Reilly, made Angel run for three and a half hours, shocking her with a stick if she tried to stop. She eventually collapses and the whitecoats converse about cutting up her brain. Max realizes that they overslept and gets Nudge ready to go while Fang packs cans of food in a backpack. Fang uses logic to calm Max’s guilt about oversleeping. Fang and Nudge ask about how they will rescue Angel. Max doesn’t tell them that if nothing works, she will trade herself for Angel. While they are flying, Max sees a bunch of boys bullying a girl and decides to go help her. She sends Fang and Nudge ahead. Iggy and Gazzy start making a bomb. They decide to use Max’s Mickey Mouse alarm clock for parts as revenge. Max saves Ella from the three boys. She accidently beats them up a little too much, not realizing at first how fragile humans are. One pulls out a shotgun and Max runs through the woods. However, she is shot. She falls down a ravine and finds that her wing was hit. She succumbed to her fatal flaw (fighting for the underdog) and now felt like she was letting her flock down. Fang and Nudge fly to a high up cave above Lake Mead to wait for Max. Nudge steps out on the ledge and sees Ferruginous Hawks. The two bird kids sit quietly and allow the birds to get used to them so that they do not attack. They watch the birds and try to imitate their moves in the air. Nudge starts to worry about Max and Angel. Max wanders through the woods avoiding the humans. She eventually comes to a house and Ella is letting her dog out. Max asks Ella for help and then has an internal debate on whether to stay or run away. Ella sees the blood and gets her mom, Dr. Martinez. Ella’s mom comes and brings her veterinary equipment. Max has no choice but to show her shoulder as well as her wing. The two humans are surprised by what they see, but are still willing to help Max. Angel wonders where Max is. She had bitten Reilly earlier and he hit her in the face. One whitecoat advises the other to be careful with Angel before he takes blood from the shunt in her hand. Next, she is forced to run through Mazes that shock/burn her when she slows down. Eventually, she reads the mind of the one building the mazes and goes through it quickly. Jeb comes to greet her. Iggy and Gazzy have finished their time bomb and are setting traps. Two Erasers in a Hummer hit a tarp covered in oil and flip the car. Thy walk away from the accident and Gazzy describes the scene to Iggy. They go to an abandoned logging house the flock has used as a clubhouse in the past. Two Erasers show up, blocking the exits. Iggy and Gazzy narrowly escape through the roof. Iggy drops their home made bomb, killing the two Erasers. The two in the Hummer are searching for them with binoculars, So Iggy and Gazzy fly away. After hiding for a while, they decide to go find the rest of their flock. Fang and Nudge start looking around for Max, not wanting to get too close to where they left her. Nudge sees a sign for Tipisco, Arizona and decides to find her parents. Fang tries to tell her not to, but Nudge refuses to listen. She finds the address she remembered from her file. A woman walks out of a trailer with curlers and lights a cigarette. Nudge is about to approach her when Ari and two other Erasers appear behind her and Fang. Ari tells them that the rest of the flock has already been killed. The two bird kids use what they can find to fight off the Erasers and get away. Max is left alone with Dr. Martinez when Ella goes to school. She tells the doctor a few things about her, but tries to keep her origin and her flock a secret. Dr. Martinez takes Max to her office or x-rays, using the excuse that she is a student writing a paper. Max has muscle tissue damage, but it is healing at a faster rate than normal humans. The x-ray also shows a tracking chip in her arm. Dr. Martinez doesn’t think that she can get the chip out because it was implanted when Max was so much smaller. Two Erasers come in looking for Max, who Dr. Martinez has hidden in a closet. The doctor chases them away. Max agrees to stay the humans one more night. Jeb tries to win Angel over with food, but she doesn’t trust him. She is also wondering why she can’t hear his thoughts at all. Max makes chocolate chip cookies with Ella and Dr. Martinez. She later tells Ella that she has to leave the next day and probably won’t be able to visit, which makes Ella sad. Max likes having a sense of normalcy with these regular humans. The next day, she takes off, hoping Fang and Nudge are still waiting for her. Fang steals some kabobs from some nearby campers and brings them back to Nudge. The start eating and Iggy and Gazzy show up, explaining how the mountain they used to live on is covered in Erasers. Max is still a little sore, but is able to get to the other four bird kids. Everyone explains what happened while they were separated, and they take off to go save Angel. Knowing they need to refuel and can’t fly all the way to The School, the flock stops and hides in some bushes near a shopping plaza. An angry man yelling at someone over the phone stops at the ATM to take out money. Ari and other Erasers show up and scare the man away. They chase after him in their own car, giving the flock an opportunity to steal the man’s forgotten ATM card. Iggy listened while the man punched in the PIN and is able to figure it out. Max is reluctant about “borrowing” a van from some kid that just went to work until they hear a helicopter in the distance. After wondering around trying to use her internal sense of direction to find the school, they decide to go to a small town called Bennett or food and a map. The flock goes into a fast food restaurant and order mounds of food. They start eating, but don’t realize that the crowd around them have been replaced by Erasers. They get back into the van and Max drives them out of town. She tries to cut through a cornfield to loose the Erasers that are chasing the, but ends up crashing the car on the other side. Everyone seems okay, but the Erasers quickly come after them. Ari is surprised that the flock does not seem to want to return to The School. Max, Fang, and Nudge are captured and put into cages in the same room as Angel. Jeb shows up to greet Max, saying he has missed her. He takes Max into a private room to talk to her. He says that her purpose is to save the world. Max continues to stay silent and is eventually returned to her cage. The whitecoats and Erasers, including Ari, load the cages onto a cart and wheel them outside to the yard where Erasers are trained to hunt their prey. Ari taunts Max and pokes his finger in her cage. She bites down until he throws her cage near Angel’s. She unlatches the other cage and tells Angel to get away. Iggy and Gazzy are leading the hawks to The School as reinforcements. Max fights some more and is able to free Fang and then Nudge. The flock is ready to fly off together with the hawks. The bird kids realize that they need a new home. Max feels like going to the east coast will be a nice change. The flock starts heading east. Max gets a blinding pain behind her eyes and can’t do anything, including staying air born. Fang catches Max and carries her to the ground. When the pain subsides, they start cooking whatever they can find over a fire. Max is worried that she is nearing the end of her life-span. Angel has a secret to tell Max that she learned while at The School: their prison is run by a larger place called the Institute. Also, they have real parents. The bird DNA was added while they were still in the womb. Nudge and Fang’s parents were told that they died. Iggy’s mom died giving birth. Gazzy and Angel’s parents sold them to the school. However, Angel didn’t learn anything about Max’s parents. Everyone tries to deal with this news. The kids take off, but the pain in Max’s head returns and she falls to the ground. They take off again, this time Max is able to stay up. Nudge wonders out loud whether her parents would want her. Max is reminded of Dr. Martinez and Ella. There is a Taylor Twins concert in Central Park, so the flock lands there and hides in the crowd. Afterwards, they fly up into a tree for the night. Nudge loves the excitement of New York, but Iggy finds it harder to navigate with so much noise. The next morning, they wake up to find the park is busy. They start about their day by getting food, but quickly start being followed by more and more Erasers. They make their way into the zoo (which is having a school day). The younger kids enjoy the experience, but the older ones start having trouble with claustrophobia. They leave and wonder around the city for a while. Fang suggests that they look for the Institute in the phone book. Max notices that they are in front of a library and they all go inside to do some research, but have no luck. The flock decides to leave and take the subway back to Central Park to sleep again. When no trains arrive, they start to worry. Iggy hears voices approaching and they start running down the tracks until they find a city of homeless people. They decide to stay there for the night, sleeping on a ledge. Max wakes up in pain, just wanting it to end already. A boy comes up to her and accuses her of messing up his mother board. He shows her his screen and she sees the images that have been flashing inside her head. The kid gets freaked out when the computer welcomes Max to New York. A voice in her head says that she new Max would come. The pain increases and the screen changes to say, “The Institute of Higher Living.” Fang also saw all of this happen. They start asking the boy some questions, but he gets paranoid and leaves. The flock sets out on the streets again in the morning. The voice in Max’s head tells her to get on a bus and take the stop that sounds fun. They listen and end up at a large toy store. Angel asks for a $49 stuffed bear dressed as an angel. Max refuses, so Angel gets inside a lady’s head and has the lady by it for her. Max is disappointed in Angel’s actions. The voice is still trying to convince Max to relax when Erasers show up. The flock starts running, but one grabs Max. She is unable to fight it off, but it soon drops down dead. The rest of the flock comes to Max. They see from the tattoo on the dead Eraser’s neck that he was only five years old. Nearby, Max finds an ATM card with her name on it. The voice tells her that she can use it if she can figure out the password. They return to Central Park and start sleeping in a tree. The police come along and tell them that they are not allowed to do that. They end up running away from the police and hiding in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. They decide that this is a safe place to spend the night. The pain returns and Max sees a greenish building on 31st street. The flock decides that they should find the building. Along the way, they try the ATM card. Eventually, Angel comes up with the password: mother. They find the building, but not the Institute. The receptionist’s computer screen tells them there is a pot of gold beneath every rainbow. Max asks if the building has a basement. The security guard chases them out. Gazzy breaks down in frustration (which is unusual for him). Max agrees to go sit, eat, and rest somewhere to help cheer him (and everyone else) up. They go into a fancy restaurant that excites the younger kids and makes the older ones anxious. The waiter takes their order, but is shocked by how much they asked for. The manager comes over to try to get them to lessen their orders. Max refuses and they are asked to leave. Before they can, the police show up from the front and kitchen. They decide to fly out the sky light. Back in a tree, the flock discusses the situation and how pictures were taken of them flying. Ari and some other Erasers show up and surround the tree. Angel accidently drops her bear, Celeste, and Angel jumps down, concentrates on making Ari drop it, grabs it, and gets back in the tree. The Erasers are called back by the director. The flock finds a new shelter on top of a building that is in being constructed. Max starts to worry about Angel using her power to get her way all the time. The fall asleep and when Max wakes up Fang gives her breakfast and some newspapers with their picture on the front page. They decide to lie low for a while. They head into the city for food and are offered free makeovers. Max accepts because she thinks this will help them be unrecognizable from the pictures. They also go to a second hand store for new clothes. That night, they take flight to leave the city. They go to a vacant beach and find huge rocks that make a decent shelter. The flock seems to love the beach. Fang asks Max if she would forget the mission and stay there if she knew they’d all be safe. She starts wondering about sides in the game, whether or not one of them is a double agent. She wonders if Angel is different since they got her back. Gazzy is worried because Angel hasn’t surfaced from the ocean water in a while. When she finally surfaces, they find out that she has tiny gills that allow her to breath under water. The next day, Max is woken up by Ari. Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge make it into the air. Fang knocks Ari off Max and takes a beating. They are surrounded by hundreds of Erasers. Jeb stops Ari. Max tells Jeb that she want out of the game. He says she is the greatest and must save the world. Max checks on Fang. He wakes up and she kisses him, sure that she is loosing her mind. Fang declares that he is going to kill Ari. Back in the subway tunnels of New York City, Max scares away the hacker boy the met before by telling him about the chip that is implanted in her arm. That night, Max dreams about where the Institute is. The flock follows the dream through the sewer system. Max’s vision suddenly has a built in map, which seems to be temporary, and follows lights that only she can see. When they come to a door, Iggy picks the lock. They open the door and start down the stairs. They eventually end up in a lab that looks just like the one at The School. Nudge touches the computer Max is at and finds the password (she can see what people have previously done with an object). Max finds their origin documents and prints them. Fang rounds up the gang, but Gazzy is distracted by another lab with caged subjects in them. They set the creatures free and get as far as the sewer before Ari shows up. Ari explains that the scientists start the Eraser process on him when Jeb left with the flock. Ari claims that since they waited longer before starting the mutations, he is a super-Eraser. Max tells Fang to get the others out while she fights Ari. She finds an opportunity and takes it, possibly breaking Ari’s neck. He says that he never would have hurt her like that. Max and Fang fly through the tunnels and they hear Jeb yell in anguish. Max yells back that it was his game that did this. Jeb replies that she killed her own brother. Fang informs Max that the other mutants left, not wanting to stay with the flock Angel adopts a dog, Total. They agree that she can keep him as long as she takes care of him. They start going through the pages Max printed off. Everyone seems to find info about their parents except Max. She tells them that they will go look for them. The voice in Max’s head says that it is a friend. The flock starts out to find their parents. The voice interrupts, saying that Max needs to focus on the world, not just her flock. Max replies that the flock is her world.

Rebel Angels Libba Bray Kartik is told to go to London. The Rakshana are not happy with him because he failed to keep Gemma from taking the power out of the realms. Now they worry that Circe will find a way In. Kartik is told that he must help Gemma find the temple, claim it for the Rakshana (who cannot enter the realms as punishment by the Order), and kill Gemma. Gemma is having trouble making an ornament and makes a rude comment. Mrs. Nightwing catches her and sentences her to detention. Later, Ann notes that it is Wednesday, their day to go visit Pippa. The girls go to the woods to visit the altar they made for Pippa. Gemma tells the others that she can’t find the door to enter the realms (which is a lie), which makes them upset with her. Gemma finds a note from Kartik on Pippa’s altar asking to see her immediately. Gemma spends Vespers in the chapel thinking of what Kartik could want. When she starts walking back to the school, she thinks she sees him (or something). Gemma cannot sleep and is wandering the halls when there is a knock on the front door of the school. Gemma gets her first look at Miss McCleethy, who seems familiar with Spence. Gemma spies on the new teacher and notices that she stops when she arrives at the east wing before following Brigid to her new room. Later that night, Gemma has a dream that Pippa is telling her to come back to the realms but to be careful. Pippa roars and exposes sharp teeth. At breakfast the next morning, Mrs. Nightwing introduces Miss McCleethy as Miss Moore’s replacement. Cecily, Elizabeth and Marsha start talking about how horrible Miss Moore was. Gemma sticks up for her and this eventually leads to Felicity having to stick up for Gemma. Ann tries to stay out of it and Cecily uses that to make Ann feel worse. Gemma spills some preserves on Cecily, and they argue to Mrs. Nightwing whether it was on purpose or not. Mrs. Nightwing makes them all stay for lessons in manner since they are all being brats. Gemma sees snow for the first time. Felicity throws a snowball at her and Ann falls in the snow, soaking herself. Felicity doesn’t want to hear Ann complain, so she goes to find Cecily and Elizabeth. Gemma starts a snowball fight with Ann. While looking for higher ground, Gemma runs into Kartik. He tells her about the magic running wild in the realms. She must find the temple and bind the magic in the name of the Eastern Star. He kisses her hand and leaves. Gemma feels pain and sickness. Two girls appear that seem to be around her age. She calls to them, but receives no answer. They fade away. After vespers, the girls are made to watch a pantomime of Hansel and Gretel. During the performance, Gemma meets the eyes of Miss McCleethy and has a vision: there are three girls playing among the cliffs by the sea. Something rises up from the sea. Gemma wakes up on the floor with everyone staring. She looks down and sees that she has started her first period. Brigid takes care of Gemma until Felicity and Ann arrive. Gemma tells them about the mission form Kartik. Then she tells them her feelings about Miss McCleethy’s gaze. Felicity makes fun of Gemma and Gemma insults the new teacher just before she walks in. Miss McCleethy expresses her wish to be friends and expects Gemma in class the next day. Gemma dreams that she is in the garden and a voice calls her closer until it can see Gemma’s face. Gemma attends archery lessons and sees that everyone loves Miss McCleethy. She feels the need to impress her somehow. She tries talking, but is reprimanded. While Miss McCleethy is collecting arrows, Gemma gets frustrated and shoots one. It hits Miss McCleethy in the hand. Gemma is made to dress her first wound as penance. The teacher then sends Gemma to her room for new gloves. Gemma gets them and finds a suitcase that Miss McCleethy had insisted on keeping with her when she arrived. Gemma searches through it and finds: A ring in the design of two snakes, an advertisement for a bookstore, and a list of schools for girls where every name has been crossed off except Spence. Gemma returns to Miss McCleethy, who has noticed that Gemma was gone longer than necessary for the task. She recommends that Gemma get more exercise. The girls all attend the last supper before Christmas break. They exchange gifts (Gemma’s is to take her friends back to the realms). Miss McCleethy tells the girls how Mrs. Nightwing met her husband and Mrs. Nightwing explains his death at Ann’s request. Cecily tells a “Christmas” story. Miss McCleethy spots Gemma’s necklace, but Felicity and Ann drag Gemma away to dance before she can answer the teacher’s calls. The girls meet at midnight and go into the realms. Gemma shows them the smashed runes. Pippa appears, glad to see them again. As the girls catch up with Pippa, Gemma wonders why she hasn’t crossed over when she had seen her cross the lake. Pippa explains that the Rakshana aren’t exactly protectors of the Order, but are after their power. Pippa asks them to visit again soon and Felicity offers to take Ann home with her over their break so that they can return sooner. On the way back to the door, Pippa crushes a snake with a rock. Gemma notices that she looks at it with hunger. Upon their return, girls realize that they have brought the magic back with them. Gemma says her goodbyes to Ann and Felicity (after listening to Felicity’s plan to transform Ann over their break). In the night, while the school is almost empty, Gemma notices the door to the east wing is cracked open. Mrs. Nightwing and Miss McCleethy are talking. She overhears some of the conversation, but nothing cohesive. She is caught out of her room by Miss McCleethy and is sent to bed. Too shaken for bed, Gemma starts looking through Ann’s magazines. She is talking to herself in the mirror when Kartik makes his presence known, scaring her. Kartik tells her that he was taken from his parents when he was six to be trained for the brotherhood. He tries to explain that it is an honor before he leaves. Gemma doesn’t know who to trust: Pippa or Kartik. Miss McCleethy arrives with milk and Gemma forces herself to drink some though she thinks it takes funny. The teacher asks her about the necklace and Gemma decides to play dumb. When Miss McCleethy tries to ask about Gemma’s mother, the younger girl insists that it is bed time. Gemma wakes up in the middle of the night and has another vision of the girls on the cliffs by the sea. There are three girls running ahead and a fourth girl holding the hand of a woman dressed in green. The girl tells Gemma not to trust the woman. Tom is late showing up to collect Gemma from the train station. She thinks that a member of the Rakshana is following her and goes to a random man for help. He points out a logical explanation of why the man appeared to be following her. He asks her opinion on a piece of cameo jewelry for his mother before introducing himself as Simon Middleton. When Tom arrives, he seems to already know Simon and is also a little competitive with him. Simon asks Gemma to come over for dinner some night. In the carriage, Tom remembers that he needs to stop for cake. While waiting, Gemma spots Miss Moore, who invites her (and eventually Felicity and Ann) to call on her. Gemma is the first to inform her of Pippa’s death. Gemma is at her grandmother’s house for the first time. She overhears her father and Tom arguing because their father hired an Indian driver. Dinner is awkward, and Tom makes it worse by letting slip that he wasn’t on time to pick up Gemma. Their father storms out, stating his disappointment in Tom. Gemma receives a gift from her father (her mother’s favorite book of sonnets). Later, she is given an invitation for her and her family to have dinner with Simon Middleton’s family. He also sent her the box with the secret compartment he had his mother’s jewelry in. Tom accuses Gemma of giving their father a bottle of laudanum. She realizes that he must have gotten her to unlock the curio cabinet so he could get to it. She apologizes, and he tells her to hide it. She puts it under the trap door of the box Simon sent her. Felicity and Ann arrive to pick up Gemma for shopping. The other two girls seem to have a secret tea with Felicity’s mother. Gemma lies and says that she is going to visit Miss Moore, so she couldn’t possibly join them anyway. Felicity insists that they see Miss Moore right away. They tell their former teacher what has been going on with the realms. She doesn’t seem to believe them, but invites them to a show on Thursday. The girls all meet Felicity’s mother for tea. Her mother continually corrects Felicity and wanders off to talk with people. The girls sneak away to visit the realms. On their way, Felicity spots Lady Darby, Simon’s mother, who can make or break a person. Felicity warns Gemma to be careful around her during their dinner. Gemma wonders if Felicity has any interest in Simon, but Felicity denies it. They find an deserted bed camber to use for the visit to the realms. Pippa has found the gorgon (who is a dragon like ship with a snake head). They ask a few questions and find out that they need to go to the Forest of Light. They start off on their trip and Gemma gets sea sick. She goes to the front of the ship and talks to the gorgon. She finds out the magic was loose before, anyone could enter the realms, and the creatures could enter their world. The creatures fought each other for the power. The Order was one of the tribes and always had bower. When they found the temple, they drank of its waters and their power was passed down through generations. No one could come and go as the pleased without the Order’s permission. Some members of each tribe got together and took a couple of the Order’s girls to strike back at them. They found that they could gain a lot of power if they sacrificed the girls. The Order made the runes, which sealed the realms to everyone but them until Circe betrayed them. Gemma asks about the spirits that don’t cross over, and the gorgon replies that she has never seen one not become corrupted. They pass the Cave of Sighs that are inhabited by the Untouchables, the Hajin. The caves used to be the place where the Order would take their lovers, men of the Rakshana. They go through a waterfall and on the other side, they are surrounded by water with an island in the distance. The other girls say that they don’t want the magic to be bound. Gemma tries to explain to them that it is not an option. Glowing lights lead them into the forest where they become surrounded by Centaurs. The creatures become upset when they learn that Gemma is part of the Order. They take her to Philon. Philon argues with the largest centaur, Creostus, on their way to talk in private. Philon explains that they were loyal to the Order and still punished with the rest of the rebels. It offers the girls a weapon in exchange for some of the magic after the Order regains control. Felicity chooses a bow and arrows. Philon walks the girls back to the boat and points out the gorgon’s ship form is a curse. Since the magic is no longer bound, she may not be bound to tell the truth anymore. On the way back to the garden, the girls have a run in with some water Nymphs (who lure humans into the water to steal their skin). Gemma has the gorgon save them and take them back to the garden. Gemma questions the gorgon about the curse and her loyalty. The gorgon led her people in a rebellion against the Order. They return to their own world and Ann uses the magic to sin in Russian. Lady Darby doesn’t think she’s met the Duke of Chesterfield, who Ann is claiming to be the daughter of. Felicity makes the old lady “break wind” to keep their lie from coming undone right there. Gemma returns home and uses the last of her magic to heal her father. When she wakes him, he goes to the kitchen for food. Gemma eventually follows him and hears the end of a story he is telling the cook. The maid is about to be sent out to give Kartik his dinner, but Gemma asks to do it instead. Gemma updates Kartik and notices that he and the maid, Emily, seem to like each other. Gemma has another (or the same) vision of the four girls on the cliffs with the woman in green. This time when the woman summons the creature, Gemma notices that she wears the same ring Miss McCleethy has in her trunk. Gemma and her family attend dinner with Simon and his family. On the way out of the carriage, Gemma falls and Kartik catches her. She goes inside and Simon smiles at her. He introduces them to his mother. At dinner, she test Gemma, who seems to answer well. Tom and their father tell stories. Simon talks with Gemma. Tom tells the story of Nell Hawkins, who was a member of the Order. Simon tries to come up with an excuse to have some time with Gemma. Everyone ends up following them to the library where they do have a few minutes to talk and flirt before the men and women are separated. On their way out of the library, someone is throwing rocks at the window, but there was no one there when they look. Kartik shows that he is jealous when Gemma sneaks down to talk with him. He says Simon looks at her like a ripe piece of fruit. Gemma updates him about Nell. Gemma goes to the asylum with Tom so that she can meet Nell Hawkins. She reads her poetry until Tom is out of the Room. Nell tells her to stay on the path and the temple is hidden in plain sight. While looking for Tom, a mute man tells her that the spirits are joining and coming for her. Tom refuses to tell Gemma what happened to Nell, but he does tell her that she was going to Saint Victoria’s, which is where Miss McCleethy came from. Gemma, Felicity, and Ann meet up to shop in London. Felicity pays off Franny (the servant that is supposed to watching her) to leave them alone. Gemma updates them on what she has learned. They see the bookstore that Miss McCleethy had an advertisement for and decide to go in. The man is unable to help them, but Miss McCleethy comes in while they are there. They hide and after their teacher leaves, they buy the same book that she just purchased. The girls decide to follow her. The girls follow her by train and then horse tram. Miss McCleethy ends up going to Bethlam, the asylum, and they assume it is because of Nell. However, they can’t continue or else they will be late to meet Franny. The girls return to Felicity’s, where they start reading the book they bought. It says that the Order protects the weak minded (lunatics, drunks, etc.). They also find that members of the Order used anagrams to disguise their names. They play with Claire McCleethy until it says “They call me Circe.” They go to the realms where Pippa is waiting for them. They update her and she leads them to a path she hasn’t taken yet. They run into a group of girls who died in a factory fire. One of them is acting odd and telling them to go to the Winterlands. Gemma tells them not to trust whoever the strange girl might be talking to. Pippa’s knight brings her a goat head and Gemma sees Pippa lick her lips at it. They return back to their world and fly over London. Calling themselves the ghosts of Christmas, they prevent a man from committing suicide because Gemma can hear his thoughts. They return to Felicity’s and Polly (Felicity’s younger cousin) comes rushing in for her dolly. Felicity does something magical to it and gives it back. The girls meet Miss Moore at the art gallery. She explains Milton’s Paradise Lost to them. Felicity asks about evil being innate and states that she feels sorry for Lucifer. They move on and run into Ann’s rich cousins, who inform her that there governess is leaving soon and Ann will be needed sooner than expected. The three girls update Miss Moore and she warns them of the dangers of their accusing Miss McCleethy. Miss Moore sees them home and asks Gemma if she really is suspicious of their new teacher. When Gemma answers yes, Miss Moore decides to check it out. Gemma arrives home to Lady Darby and Simon calling on her. They go for a walk in the park and Lady Darby invites Gemma and her grandmother to the opera. A carriage being driven by the man with the scar (that followed her in the train station) stops to pick up a woman in a green cloak. Later that night, Gemma has another vision of the girls that died on the cliffs. They show her that Ness was supposed to take them to the realms that day. They tell her to look in her mom’s diary for answer and she finds the newspaper clippings of girls that have died at the boarding schools that were on Miss McCleethy’s list. Going back to the asylum, Gemma visits Nell again. She asks her about what happened on the cliffs. Nell explains that Circe wanted Nell to take her into the realms, but wasn’t able to. The monster rose out of the sea. Gemma tells the other girl that her friends come to her in visions. Nell gets angry, saying that they are not her friends. She tells Gemma to follow the path that is hidden in plain sight and is taken outside. Another patient tells Gemma that Nell is aligned with bad and that they are all coming for Gemma. She runs into Kartik and he takes her to his secret place in the slums to talk. They come up with the idea that the crescent eye may be a compass in the realms. They go back to the carriage and Mr. Fowlson, the man with the scar, has taken it over. He warns them to each stick to their tasks and leaves. Gemma asks if Fowlson can be trusted. Kartik says he can because he is part of the brotherhood. Later that day, Gemma’s grandmother tells her not to break her father’s heart. Shortly after, an amethyst necklace arrives for Gemma from Simon. Kartik leaves a note on her pillow to come see him, but she is too enamored with thinking of Simon. She burns the note. The next night, Gemma and her family meet Simon and his family at the opera. Felicity and Ann are there as well. Felicity makes an excuse for them to go to the dressing room and they agree to go into the realms just before intermission. When Gemma is reluctant to leave Simon, Felicity warns Gemma that Simon is a lady’s man. Simon keeps looking at Gemma during the opera. She excuses herself just before intermission. The girls go into the realms and use the amulet necklace to find the right path to follow. It dead ends Gemma is overwhelmed by the magic and must return home. They run into her party and tell them as much. Cecily and her mother come over and Cecily is about to give away Ann’s real status. Gemma yells “stop” and everything freezes. She tells Cecily to believe everything they say and to treat An as a queen. She also smacks a random man and tells him to stop cheating on his wife. She tells time to begin again and feels much better. When she gets home, she feels ill and the magic is almost gone. She sleeps and has terrible dreams. Gemma is sick and forced to stay in bed. Her father tells her stories of India before leaving for his club. She receives a reply letter from Saint Victoria’s headmistress, confirming that Miss McCleethy’s employment dates and saying that she left to teach at a school near London where her sister was Headmistress. Felicity and Ann come to visit. They read the letter and decide that they cannot trust Mrs. Nightwing. The girls send a letter to Miss Moore, updating her. She replies for them to be careful, especially where Nell Hawkins is concerned. Gemma goes to visit Nell before the Lunatic’s Dance. She brought a corsage, but Nell has already received flowers from someone the nurse can’t seem to remember. Nell has the parrot with her and tells Gemma that she will take her to the temple. However, Gemma tries to take the bird away because Nell is about to hurt it. Nell bites her and the nurse takes the bird away. Gemma goes to leave and Mr. Snow tells her not to trust “the one who comes.” Gemma is afraid of Nell. At the dance, Tom talks with Gemma and her friends. Ann hopes he will ask her to dance, but he doesn’t. The patients start performing for the crowd. Nell recites a riddle that will let Gemma know where the temple is, but the doctors and nurses stop her before she can finish. Gemma notices that Miss McCleethy is also listening intently. Gemma goes to Nell’s room to find out where the temple is. They are interrupted by the arrival of Circe. They hide under the bed and are unnoticed. Nell takes Gemma into her vision, but Nell’s mind is so messed up that Gemma cannot decipher anything. Nell asks Gemma to set her free. Christmas Eve comes along and Gemma’s father has been missing for two days. Kartik arrives asking for Tom who is at a club with Simon. Eventually, he tells Gemma that her dad is at an opium den. She dresses in Tom’s clothes and Kartik goes with her to get him. By the time they get there, her father has already sold his wedding band and watch. Gemma feels it is all her fault because of who she is. When Tom finds out upon their arrival home, he feels that science has failed him. The next morning while everyone is still asleep, Gemma goes to thank Kartik. He gives her a statue (which was Amar’s) for protection. They joke, dance, and kiss. Gemma makes a racist comment and doesn’t realize it until Kartik packs up to leave forever. Gemma spends Christmas morning in church and then goes to Felicity’s house. Felicity has Franny alter a French dress her mom bought her so that Ann can wear it. She also convinces her to lower the neck of the dress she plans to wear herself. Felicity seems to be in a very vindictive mood, especially when Gemma and Ann don’t want to sneak away from the ball to enter the realms. The dance starts and Gemma dances with a short boy who talks too much. She dances with Simon. Simon and the girls end up sneaking off and experimenting with absinthe. Gemma dances with Simon again and he eventually pulls her up to a maids room. He starts kissing her bare skin. She has a vision and the three girls in white show her the temple. A monster rises above it and she screams. Simon thinks it is because of him and takes Gemma back downstairs before disappearing for the night. Felicity goes to take her cousin Polly to bed and tells her to always lock her door. Gemma, listening in, realizes that the Admiral (Felicity’s father) molests children. When she confronts Felicity about it, but Gemma just upsets her. Gemma tries to visit Felicity. Ann comes out to apologize for her and inform Gemma that she received a letter asking for proof of her rumored inheritance. Gemma tells Ann to inform felicity that she’s seen the temple. She goes home and relives Tom of watching their father. She finds that something from the realms has been whispering the truth to him. She gives him the last of the laudanum and goes to see Nell, who has killed the parrot and gives her the same warnings. Felicity tells Gemma to forget what she heard the night of the ball. They go to the garden and it is starting to decay. Pippa attacks and kills an animal. Gemma doesn’t trust her, so Pippa runs off. They start following the amulet again. They go to the top of a hill to look around and see a cathedral. Even though the amulet doesn’t glow, they decide to go that way and start climbing the stairs of the tower. They quickly learn that it isn’t the temple, and they are surrounded by Poppy Warriors. The leader of the Poppy Warriors, Azreal, decides to see if Felicity is the one that holds the power. Gemma offers them a hunt. Azreal gives them a head start to the catacombs, which have five tunnels and only one way out. Gemma’s magic is blocked by the warriors so that they cannot escape through the door of light to their own world. They find the door into the catacombs and climb down to the tunnels. They decide to stick together to check the tunnels, hoping the door above will hold the Poppy Warriors off of them for a little while. When they have only two tunnels left, felicity reminds Gemma to use the amulet. However, it gets caught in her dress and goes flying when she rips it out. They waste more time looking for it and are found by the time she retrieves the necklace. Gemma finally realizes what Azreal meant when he told her that their fear lets the warriors in. They start mentally torturing Ann then Felicity. Gemma uses the amulet to find the right tunnel until Azreal says that he visits her father to tell him the truth about her. Felicity overcomes her fear and shoots Azreal with an arrow. They run to a boat and are safe from the Poppy Warriors. However, the boat tips over and the water nymphs get Ann. They walk back to the garden and see the three girls leading the fire victims away with false promises as Nell had warned. They must let them go so that they can save Ann. Felicity and Gemma see Pippa, who is upset that they want to go back for Ann when they left her behind (because only Gemma went back for Pippa). They agree to bring Miss Moore into the realms for help. Gemma gets their former teacher and updates her. They decide to rely on the gorgon to take them to the lagoon where the nymphs live. The gorgon takes them as far as she can and they see the nymphs preparing to take Ann’s skin. The three girls in white appear and distract the nymphs. Gemma has a rope tied to her and swims with Ann’s dead weight while the others pull them in. The nymphs attention is back on them so Miss Moore and Pippa release the nets (borrowed from the gorgon). Gemma taunts them and they start to sing. Luckily, Ann’s own voice seems to counteract the sirens. The three girls in white approach them with a tracker. They run, but Miss Moore is caught and the gorgon doesn’t stop when Gemma tells her to. Upon returning, Gemma doesn’t feel well and sleeps. Lady Darby and Simon come to tell her that Ann’s claims of an inheritance are false. She feels sick again. Simon tells her that his mother approves of her and expects them to marry. Gemma asks him to delay his mother’s trip to oust Ann publically. She sneaks over to Felicity’s and warns them. They are going back to find the temple and can use the magic to fix Ann’s problem. When she gets back to her house, the driver forces her into a carriage with Miss McCleethy and Fowlson. They take her to a hideout of the Rakshana, who Miss McCleethy has been working with to bind the magic. She says that she promised them she would bind it to them, but that she is lying. She also tells her that Kartik has been lying to her. Gemma talks to Kartik and confirms that lies. Gemma pretends to faint, but Miss McCleethy is the only one that sees through it. While Kartik carries her, she pulls out the knife he gave her. She doesn’t know the way out, but Karik shows her the way. They walk in the crowded streets with Miss McCleethy and Fowlson following. Gemma spots Simon and his father and switches directions. Kartik shoves Gemma into a cab ahead of a couple and tells them she’s the duchess of Kent. When Lord Darby comes to check on the situation, Kartik smacks the horse and acts like a mad man. Gemma tells the drive to take her to Miss Moore’s place. Gemma realizes that she has no way to pay the driver, so she makes a run for it. She hides in an alley until Mrs. Porter lets her in because she uses Felicity’s famous name. Mrs. Porter lets her into Moore’s room and comes back to tell her that Miss Moore left a note that morning saying she was going to teach at a school where her sister is headmistress. Gemma realizes that Miss Moore is Circe and allows the rest of Nell’s vision to come through. Miss Moore was the teacher on the cliffs, calling herself Miss McCleethy back then. She grew fond of Nell and tried to save her from her own monster. Nell slips into the water and is rescued by a fisherman. Gemma runs out, guilt of letting Circe into the realms consuming her. The three girls in while say that Circe is close to the temple. A Constable comes along to help Gemma. Gemma wakes up at home in bed with a fever. They give her drugs to help her rest, but they take her into a dream/vision where she finds that the Cave of Sighs is the temple, the Untouchables its guardian. Asha tells her to leave the dream and clear her mind before Circe can find them, but the drugs won’t allow it. Circe arrives with Nell as her sacrifice and thanks Gemma. When Gemma wakes up, Felicity and Ann are by her bed. She updates them and feigns sleep to avoid them and her guilt. Simon comes to visit and gives her a broach that has been in his family over 100 years. Gemma doesn’t reply, but realizes that she is “wearing his promise.” Tom asks her to go to the asylum to visit Nell, thinking the trip will be good for her. While alone with Nell, she tells Gemma that Circe can’t bind the magic and that there is still hope. Gemma runs out and goes to the train station to tell Felicity and Ann before they leave. Jackson and Fowlson are there, so they all get on the train. The girls find a compartment and work together to make the door. They start heading for the caves when they find Pippa on the gorgon ship. Felicity calls out to her and she joins them. They arrive and when Asha asks what she offers, Gemma says herself, which symbolizes hope. She goes through a waterfall to face her greatest fear. Circe is there with Nell. Circe wants Gemma to join her. She says that with her help, they could form a new Order (which would free her from the dark spirits). She also claims that Gemma will need her help. Pippa runs in with Felicity and Ann following. Circe promises that Pippa could stay forever. Felicity can’t shoot Circe. Gemma takes the bow and arrow and shoots Nell so that she can’t be used as a sacrifice. Circe attacks Gemma and they fall into a well. Gemma emerges first and binds the magic in “the name of all who will share the power one day.” The binding uses as a pathway. Circe is bound in a place where she can’t harm anyone. The glamour on Pippa fades away. When they tell her it is time for her to go, Pippa runs off swearing revenge. They see spirits starting to cross over, including Nell, who is glad to finally be free. Some of the fire victims absent and so is Pippa. Gemma releases the gorgon, but she chooses to help Gemma back to the garden anyway. When she returns home, rather than trying to heal her father again, she uses the magic to help him find his courage. Gemma visits Kartik in his hiding place, asking for his fealty to the Order. She then visits Miss McCleethy to inform her that things will not be going back to the way they used to be. The new Order will share the power. Miss McCleethy warns her that this will fail, but Gemma points out the Order’s own failures. Gemma has dinner at Simon’s house. She asks him if he would still care for her if she were different. He cannot answer the question, which she takes as a “no.” When he is called away by his mother, she sets down the broach and leaves. Back at Spence, Felicity teaches the younger girls archery. Mrs. Nightwing tells Gemma to be sure about her choice of man because it is painful when they leave you for someone else. Mademoiselle LeFarge is engaged to Inspector Kent. Ann wrote to Tom and told him the truth. He was angry, but Ann expected that. The three girls sit together at Pippa’s alter and comfort each other.Gemma Doyle Trilogy:A Great and Terrible BeautyRebel AngelsThe Sweet Far Thing

Sookie attends a meeting at Fangtasia to determine who will be going to the vampire summit. The vampires of southern Louisiana have been hit hard from Hurricane Katrina and so have decided to meet further north in Eric's area. Sookie's job is to go and read the minds of the humans that attend. Eric and Bill are also attending. Bill will be marketing his database so that the queen might be able to recover some loses. During the summit, there will be a trial regarding the king of Arkansas' death.

There is a bridal shower for Halleigh (who is marrying Andy) and Sookie attends. She has the duty of writing down who gave what gift. She has some time to update everyone on her roommate, Amelia, who has been staying with her (but leaves out that the visit is because she turned a guy into a cat).

Upon arriving home, Quinn comes out the back door. Not having seen much of Quinn lately, Sookie is about ready to break it off with him. She says that she doesn't want to have a relationship with someone who is never around. Quinn explains that after the summit, he wants to spend an entire month with Sookie. Amelia decides to go shopping to give them some time alone and they have sex.

The next day, Jason calls Sookie and informs her that he is getting married to Crystal. Sookie, Quinn, and Amelia get ready and go down to Hotshot for the ceremony. Sookie, being Jason's only living relative, is made to promise that if Jason is unfaithful in anyway and cannot deal with the punishment for any reason, she must endure it. Eventually, she agrees and the wedding is completed. Amelia ends up staying later and sleeping with one of the panthers.

The next day, Sookie is at work and Selah is there without her vampire boyfriend, Bill. She threatens Sookie, telling her not to try to steal Bill back. She indicates that Sookie has been scheming this for the vampire summit for some time. Sam asks Selah to leave. Tara comes in with J.B. to celebrate his new job at a fitness center. Sookie is happy for J.B. and glad that she and Tara are getting back to normal.

Back at home, Amelia is feeling guilty about sleeping with someone else. She promises Bob that she will not sleep with another guy until he is human again. Claudine shows up and asks Sookie not to go to the summit because it will be dangerous and she cannot follow. Sookie refuses her request.

Sookie sets off the next day for Tara's clothing shop. She buys some new clothes on Eric's credit. Tara expresses her concern for Sookie going to the vampire meeting. Sookie reminds Sam of when she is leaving and he also expresses his concern over the situation.

Pam comes into the bar to talk to Sookie about Eric. Sookie explains that she is with Quinn, but Pam thinks there is still something between her and Eric. Amelia comes in to tell Sookie that Quinn called and meets Pam. The two girls flirt a little before Amelia leaves. Arlene has been attending the Fellowship of the Sun church and says some mean words to Sookie about her relationships. Pam comforts Sookie over her lost friendship and tells her that Eric and she didn't know about Bill being sent by the queen. She then tells Sookie how she became a vampire. Eric shows up expressing his interest in Sookie by kissing her. She denies him again.

On the plane ride to the summit in Illinois, Sookie meets Sophie-Anne's defense lawyer, Mr. Glassport, who was not only in jail for stabbing a prostitute in Mexico, but had also screwed over his partners in Rhodes, Illinois before that.

At the hotel, Sookie mentally runs into Barry, the bellhop from the Dallas hotel she had stayed at, who is now working for the Dallas vampires. The two are fascinated at how they can communicate in each other's head because they are both telepaths. Sookie goes to her room and meets her roommate, Carla, who is dating one of the Louisiana vamps. She goes to the queen’s room and receives a call for someone to pick up a suitcase someone left downstairs. After their work with the vampires is done, Sookie and Barry go down to the lobby together to compare their powers. Jennifer Cater, the King of Arkansas’ second in command, comes along to threaten the queen and eventually Sookie. She storms off after some insults are traded. Quinn comes along and Barry gets a little disappointed that Sookie is not available. Their reunion is brought up short by the Britligen, Batanya (a very expensive body guard from another dimension who is guarding the King of Kentucky). The pager Sookie has been assigned goes off so she returns to the queen’s room. She tells them what happened in the lobby with Jennifer, and they decide to see if she is willing to talk to them. Jennifer agrees and they all go to her room to meet. However, when they get there, the Arkansas party is dead. There is one remaining vampire, who Sophie-Anne offers her protection to. On their way back to their own room, the queen, Mr. Cataliades, and Andre are contemplating who the queen should marry. Sookie suggests that she make Andre the King of Arkansas and marry him. Sookie looks around at the vampire booths that are all set up, trying to sell their products. Bill is among them pushing his vampire database. The King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, and the King of Indiana announce that they are going to get married. Sookie speaks with Russell a little guardedly to make sure that he isn’t mad about her leaving Lorena in his pool. He tells her that he never like Lorena and only allowed her to hold Bill at his place because they had known each other for so long. At the wedding, Sookie sits next to Jake Purifoy. Eric officiates the ceremony. Afterword, Jake tells Sookie why so many people are impressed by Quinn. His father died when he was little and when he was about 15, his mother (a were-bear) was captured by people who wanted her to pit fight. When she turned back into a human, a man raped her. Quinn (who shifted for the first time that night) found her and killed all the men there. He went to the vampires for help in the clean-up process. They agreed if he would pit fight for them for three years. He accepted and really excelled at fighting. After his three years, he returned to his mom to help her take care of his little sister (a result of the rape). Sookie meets back up with her group. The queen is talking with other royals and one of them requests that Sookie leave them alone to talk. Sophie-Anne sends her to fetch the suitcase that the man had called about earlier. As she starts heading out, Andre follows and informs her that he is going to make her drink some of his blood so that she is connected to him and the queen. Sookie refuses. Eric shows up in time to save her, but is only able to work out that she will drink his blood instead of Andre’s. Quinn shows up during the whole ordeal and is angry about what is going on. Sookie says that she will talk to him later and storms off away from the three men. Down in the basement, Sookie finds a whole stack of unclaimed suitcases. She helps another man who is also searching through them, looking for his own states luggage. They find it odd that no one has mentioned missing luggage and that the hotel employees didn’t just bring them up. After a strange encounter with the security guard, Sookie starts heading back upstairs. When she gets off the elevator on the queen’s floor, she notices a pop can in a decorative tree. She picks it up and quickly realizes that it is a bomb. Quinn and Todd Donati (head of security for the hotel) come along. Quinn offers to take the can from Sookie, but she is afraid to set it down. Donati calls the bomb squad and Quinn stays with Sookie. Eric shows up. The two men try to get Sookie away from the bomb, but she refuses until Boom, a man in a special suit from the bomb squad shows up. Later, Eric explains that Bill didn’t rush to Sookie’s rescue like Eric and Quinn did because Eric made him stay at his booth. Sookie yells at the vampires about Andre’s behavior and the bomb situation. She realizes this is unwise and heads back to her room. Quinn meets her there and tells her that there might not be a trial for Sophie-Anne because Jennifer is dead. He also lets her know that he is not working during the ball, so they can spend it together. The next day, Sookie gets ready for the ball. Shortly after she finishes prepping herself, she is called down for the trial. Henrik, the surviving vampire from Arkansas, testifies that Sophie-Anne killed his companions and would kill him next. Sookie sees in his lawyers head that this is something Henrik was told. She tells the Ancient Pythoness the truth of what is going on, explaining that she can read minds (with the exception of vampires). She tells Henrik that Sophie-Anne didn’t intend to kill him. The Ancient Pythoness is told that Sookie is also their witness for the death of Peter Threadgill, the King of Arkansas. The Ancient Pythoness declares that the queen is innocent and grants her Arkansas. She then turns her attention back to Henrik, but before he can tell her who has been lying to him, he is staked with an arrow. There is a second arrow for reassurance, but Quinn takes that one in the shoulder while trying to protect Sookie. Batanya kills the assassin right away. At the ball, Sookie dances with Eric. She meets a witch who specializes in weather and she takes him to meet the queen. After a while, she decides that he was only hired to tell the vampires of the future weather. He did not cause Hurricane Katrina. Sookie goes off to dance with Barry and Eric stops her, saying that she was being inappropriate. The two professional dancing vampires separate them. Sookie enjoys the company of Sean, but eventually leaves to visit Quinn. They talk about the whole situation with Eric. When she leaves, Batanya’s underling, Clovache, tells Sookie that the Britligens are there because the King of Kentucky found a member of the Fellowship of the Sun that had infiltrated their ranks. Eric gives Sookie the job of tracking down the hit man during the day. Bill gives her a list of archery places to investigate. She meets up with Barry in the morning. They are approached by Donati, who informs them that his boss, the hotel owner, is interested in marrying Sophie-Anne. He then tells her to have the queen ask his boss for the security tape to see who planted the pop bomb. The two telepaths set out through the town to find the archer. The third place they end up has a woman that has seen the assassin. She tells Barry to come back after she gets off work so that she can show him the tape. When they return, the girl is dead. Sookie attends a few more minor vampire trials. Between events, she notices that the waiters are avoiding her and Barry. There is also a strange appearance of an extra coffin marked as belonging to Louisiana. Mr. Cataliades refocuses Sookie and sends her along to commerce with the queen. She helps her negotiate the terms with the vendors that are trying to assist her in rebuilding New Orleans. When Sookie gets some free time, she stops to talk to Jake. He tells her to have Quinn take her out the next day. She then goes to tell Andre her theory about the pop bomb. To top her day off, she runs into Bill, who is still trying to get back with her. Barry wakes up Sookie in the middle of the day using his mind. He shows her Jake’s body. Everything clicks into place and Sookie gathers anyone she can think off that the sun won’t hurt. She explains the elaborate plan some of the waiters, security guards, and Jake had planned. They are going to blow up the building in the middle of the day. Sookie calls Quinn and tells him to get him and his sister out. She goes to get Eric and Pam. Eric wakes up eventually, but the explosions have already started. They put Pam in a coffin and ride it down the side of the hotel (with some help from Eric’s flying abilities). Sookie covers them from the sun and the ambulances arrive. She tells them to take the vamps to a dark basement to hide. She finds Quinn and sees that he and his sister will be all right after a few weeks. They find Andre buried under some rubble and Quinn stakes him so that he will not have a hold over Sookie. Sookie and Barry get together and find humans buried in the rubble of the hotel. The police officers assist them after they realize what they can do. Then the officers want to use the two of them for their own plans. They refuse to hand over their names. Sookie (who luckily grabbed her cell) calls Mr. Cataliades (who also has his). They work out a plan for Sookie and Barry to go to a motel to avoid further questioning of their abilities. The next day Mr. Cataliades brings the two telepaths some money and informs them that there is a plane leaving for Dallas and from there to Shreveport. Barry decides to take the opportunity to go home, but Sookie doesn’t want to be anywhere near the vampires because she realized that they were the ones that had killed the Arkansas clan. She goes to visit Quinn and sees that Frannie, his sister, is there with him. Quinn is really out of it and can’t really communicate well. Frannie explains that she has an extra car that Sookie can take back to Bon Temps, since her and Quinn drove separately, but are now going to the same place. Sookie accepts the offer. Sookie comes home to a very excited greeting from Amelia. Tara and JB arrive, announcing that they eloped.

Silence Becca Fitzpatrick I wasn't really impressed with this book. I mean, the whole forgotten past thing, isn't it kind of pointless considering that the reader already knows her past? I don't understand how this was supposed to add anything to the story except add a few hundred pages to make an extra book. This was a pretty bad let down after the cliffhanger in Crescendo. I feel like I need a pedigree to keep everything straight! The lineage is getting very confusing and really just seems to get more messed up in this installment. The explanation for everything seems very farfetched. At the very end, I kept getting the feeling that everything that was explained was in a "Oh yeah, and THAT'S why this random scene took place earlier... right?" kind of way. I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like the only reason I am looking forward to Finale, is to be done with this series for good. SPOILERS AHEAD: If Hank swears his oath at the beginning, and he breaks it later in the book, why doesn't he have to bear the consequences of that oath? Does this mean that Nora doesn't really have to lead his army after he dies? SUMMARY: Prologue: Four days after Nora is kidnapped by her biological father, Hank, Patch and Hank are in the graveyard trying to strike up a deal. Patch agrees to spy on the fallen angels for Hank. Hank agrees that after Nora is release, Hank will wipe Nora's memories and stay away from her. Patch also offers to let Hank rip out his wings if Hank releases Nora. Hank agrees to release her at the end of the summer... Nora wakes up in the graveyard near her father's grave. She's not sure how she got there or what exactly is going on. She runs into a grounds keeper and he realizes who she is. He wants to turn her in to Hank for the reward that is being offered. Nora runs and realizes that there is a gap in her memory (she thinks it is April, but it is really September). Detective Basso finds her and takes her to the hospital. After some testing, she is permitted to go home with her mother. That night, she finds a warning note on her pillow, but the paper is blank when she tells her mom about it. Nora does the math and figures out that her memory loss spans back further than her kidnapping. She talks to her mom and Vee about what happened, but both seem to be leaving something out. She soon finds out that her mother is dating Hank Millar, father of her high school rival, Marcie. She is forced to go to dinner with the two of them, but there is some drama when Marcie and her mother show up at the same restaurant. Marcie drags Nora to the bathroom with her and starts telling her about a mutual friend, Patch. Marcie asks for a necklace that Patch gave Nora. Nora leaves and starts walking in search of a payphone to call Vee for a ride home. She stops at the wrong place at the wrong time and sees three fallen angels (Gabe, Dominic and Jeremiah) trying to get a Nephil that works at a gas station to swear fealty. She only escapes the encounter because a guy named Jev rescues her. He seems very familiar to her. She accidently touches his wing scars and sees his memory of an archangel trapped by Hank. Nora goes for a drive to clear her head. She ends up on the beach, where she runs into Scott. He starts telling her about what really happened and what is currently going on. They make plans to keep in touch and to take down the Black Hand. Soon after, Scott ends up taking her to investigate a warehouse that he suspects is owned by the Black Hand. They don't get any information, but they do get into some trouble that they narrowly escape. Scott decides that he needs to lay low for a while. Nora decides to go to the factory again, assuming no one would suspect someone to come back so soon. Again, she gets herself into trouble when she stumbles upon the factory that is housing Hank's Nephilim recruits. Jev saves her and decides it is time to tell her the truth. Nora realizes that Jev is Patch, but since she doesn't remember her relationship, she needs to find out her feelings on her own, which are apparent very quickly. At school, Nora finds that she has been nominated for Homecoming Court. She soon learns that Marcie is behind the whole scheme. She says that her dad asked her to be nice. So Marcie offers to take Nora dress shopping with Hank's credit card. Nora already has her dress picked out, which she is wearing when Patch comes to check up on her in the dressing room. Marcie buys her a different dress while Nora is chasing down a Nephil that stole her purse from under the fitting room door (most likely in search of Patch's archangel necklace). Again at school, Nora gets called down to the office. She learns from Hank that her mother accidently fell down the stairs and is in the hospital. Hank mind tricks Nora into going to the hospital with him. On the way, they are attacked by three guys in an El Camino. Nora thinks that she hears Hank swearing about fallen angels. She is thrown from the car and sees hank bloodied briefly between unconscious bouts. She is soon released from the hospital seeing that Hank is unscathed. He mind tricks her again into letting him take her home. When Patch realizes that she is alone with Hank, he comes to her. However, their visit is short-lived when Hank almost discovers them together. Scott informs Nora that he has a gig as bassist in a band and gives her two free tickets. Although Nora thinks that he should be laying low, she is somewhat relieved to have the opportunity to get away from Hank and her mom. Vee picks her up and upon arriving at the Devil's Handbag, they meet Dabria, one of Patch's exes. She spouts out some lies, trying to get Nora to lose faith in Patch. A little while later, Nora sees the fallen angel that attacked her while in the car with Hank. Patch shows up and they discover that it is really a Nephil. Nora gets a ride home from Vee, but instead of going in, she leaves with Patch to go to his place. Dabria shows up and agrees to tell Patch what she saw in Hank's future (in exchange for $12k). Patch leaves with Dabria to see what Hank is doing with Patch's necklace. Nora agrees to stay at the studio apartment below Delphic Park. Soon after Patch leaves, Nora gets a call from Scott asking for help. She decides to go to his rescue, and he kisses her as a thank you. He also throws his enchanted Black Hand ring in the ocean at Nora's request. The attempt to flee is thwarted and both are captured by the Black Hand's men. Hank explains his evil plan to Nora. During the car accident, he gave her a blood transfusion so that her blood would be pure Nephil. She swears an oath to take Hank's place if he dies. Hank swears to leave town and never return. She gathers up her mother and they leave in a stolen car. Nora finds Marcie on the road and gives her a ride, where Marcie explains about her dad using her to get at Nora. Nora goes to meet Patch at his apartment under Delphic to explain the situation. Patch shows Nora his memories about how he rescued the trapped archangel (with the help of some fallen angels) and made a deal to kill Hank. Patch reveals that Hank is tied up in secret place. Nora decides to let him live chained up for the rest of his life, but quickly shoots him after he tries to burn one of Patches feathers (which would send him to hell). Patch and Nora are now free to live together as immortals forever. However, Scott shows up with two Black Hand guards informing her that there is a war coming. She has to decide whether she is going to lead the Nephil against the fallen angels or the archangels.

Crecendo Becca Fitzpatrick I have been putting off reading this book for a long time. A little while after I finished reading the first one, I learned that there was a sequel coming out. I moved on thinking, “I’ll get to it eventually the first one wasn’t the greatest thing ever.” It turns out that “eventually” was at least two years later. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the memory of the first book came back to me after starting this one. I do admit, I had to look up some things on Wikipedia as reminders. I found this book to be just as predictable as the first. It was a little frustrating. I could see exactly what was going on with Nora and Patch right away. After a few more chapters, I knew who the enemy was. I guess this was a pleasant enough book. It was entertaining enough to keep me reading on, and I will be starting the next book, Silence, very shortly. SUMMARY: Prologue: Harrison Grey gets a phone call from someone he hasn’t heard from in years. He rushes off to meet his old college roommate. He starts to explain about Nora, when he is abruptly stopped. Harrison is told to take his wife and child and leave the state, completely start over because Nora is in trouble. As Harrison is leaving, he hears gunshots. He goes to help his friend, but is only shot and killed in the process. Six months later, Nora is at the beach watching fireworks with boyfriend/reinstated angel, Patch. Aside from a mishap with rival Marcie Millar, the night goes well. When Patch takes her home, they sit in his jeep for a while. They exchange jewelry and Nora tells Patch that she loves him. Patch leaves her immediately. The next morning at summer school, Marcie reveals that Patch was outside her window the previous night. Upon seeing Patch, she asks what he was doing there. When he won’t give her an adequate response, she tells him she wants out of the relationship. He explains to her in her thoughts that the archangels will send him to hell if messes up again. Nora yells and screams about breaking up with him and kicks him out, mostly to save him from hell, but also because of his sneakiness with Marcie. A friend of Nora’s mom is moving back to town. The friend has a son, Scott, who Nora played with when she was little. The two severed families have a rough start together and Nora thinks she heard Scott speak to his mother’s mind (making him a Nephil). Nora decides to follow him to see what he’s up to. In the process, she thinks she sees her dad. Scott knew that she was following him and confronts her. However, she’s to distraught about her dad for him to be really mad. They end up going to a pool hall together later that night. Scott is shown to have a gambling problem. Patch is there with Marcie, making Nora furious. Patch warns her that she shouldn’t be there. Eventually, all hell breaks loose. Patch gives Nora his Jeep to take home while he goes back in for Marcie. She tells him that she doesn’t want him as her guardian angel anymore. When she won’t take it back, Patch gives up on her. While Nora is sitting in the Jeep in the driveway, Patch arrives. She tells him about a dream she had involving Hank Millar, Marcie’s dad, being a nephil taken over by a fallen angel. The next day, Nora goes to school and is invited to a party by Marcie. She blows off the invite and goes about her day. Later, she runs into Scott who invites her to a battle of the bands event. During that conversation, Vee was given a package for Nora that contained a ring with the Black Hand emblem and a note that revealed that’s who killed her father. When the night of the event rolls around, Scott gives Nora her a fake ID. They end up going together and Vee is supposed to meet them up there. On her way to find Vee, Nora hears her dad again. However, when she follows the voice, something tries to hurt her. She gets away and finds her friends. Marcie shows up with Patch and leaves his side to taunt Nora and Vee. Nora and Marcie end up in a physical fight that Patch has to break up. Later that night, Patch visits Nora in her dreams. They start out fighting, go to kissing, and eventually back to fighting when Nora touches where Patch’s wings are and sees his memory of kissing Marcie. Nora gives back Patch’s jewelry, but he refuses to give back hers. Nora ends up in the library studying for school. When Vee visits her, she delivers a card from Patch to Nora. When Nora opens it, she finds an apology accompanied by a strange sent. She passes out for two hours, wondering what happened, when she hears the noise of the elevator reaching the floor she’s on. She escapes the computer lab by breaking a window because the door was tied off to another door. She runs down the stair case and eventually makes it to Vee’s Neon. The stalker follows her in his SUV, but she evades him. As she is attempting to get to Vee’s as quickly as possible, she’s pulled over and give a $200 ticket. Nora and Vee end up at Marcie’s party with the plan to steal her diary. Nora makes it up to Marcie’s room and takes the small book, Patch’s spare key to his jeep, and Patch’s hat. She escapes out the window, but has to be rescued by Patch. She gives him the hat, but has completely forgotten about the diary and they key. Nora’s next idea for answers is to get info from Scott. She attends a party with him on the beach, but it gets rained out quickly. Scott invites everyone back to his place to continue the party. Nora allows Scott to kiss her because she wants to make Patch jealous. It leads them to the bedroom, but Nora puts a stop to it there. In a jealous rage, Patch interrupts them. After Patch is gone, Nora asks Scott about the brand on his chest and the Black Hand. Scott freaks out. Vee decides that they need some fun, so they go to the beach and meet Rixon (who is dating Vee because Patch set them up). Nora asks Rixon about the Black Hand, which he reveals was Patch’s nickname a long time ago. He also ends up giving away the location of Patch’s apartment. She decides that she’s going to check out the apartment, but goes to Marcie Millars first. She was just going to quietly return the diary, but Marcie catches her. She tells Nora the contents of the diary, thinking that Nora has already read everything anyway. Nora finds out that her mom is having an affair with Hank Millar. Nora wants to run away from home. Patch invades Nora’s dreams again and explains that someone wants to kill whoever killed Chauncey (which is Nora, but no one knows that). She kicks him out of her dream by waking up because she can’t trust him. She decides to search Scotts room and comes up with an elaborate plan to do so. She eventually finds that he has a Black Hand ring as well. She steals it and he comes after her to get it back in fear of the Black Hand finding out and killing him. Rixon comes to the rescue and ties him up for the police to handle. The next night, Nora agrees to go to Delphia Amusement Park with Vee and Rixon. The police call her and let her know that Scott escaped from jail. She tries to leave the park to meet the police, but Scott has already found her. She evades him a couple of times until he gets too close. Rixon ends up shooting him and starts leading Nora through the tunnels. Nora’s dad appears to her and tells her to touch where Rixon’s wings used to be. She does and see his memory of her dad’s death. She realizes it’s Rixon who killed her father. As it turns out, Hank Millar is her real father, who is also Rixon’s vessel. So if Rixon were to sacrifice Nora, he would become human. In making the attempt to escape Rixon, Nora finds Scott. She explains to him what he is and they have an understanding between them. However, Rixon incapacitates Scott and goes after Nora. Patch comes to save the day again. Patch reveals to Nora that he has gone rouge. He explains that he had to in order to save her life. He is now on the run and they can somewhat be together. They go back to the amusement park (which was made by fallen angels) because that is where the archangels won’t go. However, they run into a group of Nephilim led by Hank Millar.

Hush, Hush Becca Fitzpatrick SUMMARY: Chauncey, the Duc de Langeais, is in a field when he is approached by a boy with dark hair. They boy questions his lineage, but Chauncey refuses to acknowledge being any different than he was knew. The boy tells him that his real father was a fallen angel, making him Nephil. The boy refuses to leave and gives Chauncey a sick feeling until he swears fealty to him. Chauncey does this begrudgingly and is told to return the next year during the Hebrew month of Cheshvan. The boy leaves showing marks on his back from where his wings used to be. Nora goes to biology class and finds Ken and Barbie dolls on the chalk board with indicating that they will be starting sex ed. The teacher, who is also the basketball coach makes them change their seats so that they are all with someone they don’t know. He wants them to interview each other. Nora’s partner is a guy named Patch who seems to know everything about her already. She is annoyed by him especially since she doesn’t get a chance to ask him any questions. When she points this out after class, he writes his number on her hand. She claims that she won’t call. Her old lab partner and best friend Vee also complains about her new partner. Nora lives with her mom is out of town a lot for work. He father was murdered a while ago. She is used to being alone in the house. She calls Patch so that she can get her biology homework done, but he hangs up on her. She drives out to the pool hall he said he was at and dodges the doorman to find Patch. The doorman chases her, but Patch says that she’s with him and he lets it go. She tries to interview him, but he just keeps hitting on her in a crude manner. Later that night, Nora wakes up thinking that something is at her window. When she looks, nothing is there. After talking with the house keeper for a while, Nora leaves with Vee for Delphic Coast Park. They go on a couple of rides together and then go find Elliot and Jules in the arcade. Nora notices that Patch is there as well. While Nora tries to ignore him, Vee points him out to Elliot, who suggests that he go talk to him. Nora tries to defuse the situation by going to talk to Patch. He tries to get her to ditch on her double date, but refuses. Patch speaks inside her mind again and she asks him about it. He acts like she’s crazy and tells her to meet him at the archangel later. Elliot goes off to find Jules and shortly after Nora goes to get some cotton candy. She looks back and sees a hooded figure, but when she looks back again, it is gone. In her distracted confusion, she runs into Patch. He tells her that if she rides the Archangel with him and doesn’t scream, he’ll tell her everything. Considering her fear of heights, Nora does pretty well until she notices that her seatbelt is undone. She tries to refasten it, but gets slammed against the door, which flies open. Nora thinks that she is falling out of the ride, but it turns out she is just fine. Patch leaves her confused once again. When Nora gets back to the arcade, she can’t find Elliot or Vee. Patch follows her around while she looks for them. She realizes that Vee must be waiting for her out by the car, but after searching the entire lot, she realizes that she was alone. Nora accepts Patch’s offer to take her home on his motorcycle. When they get there, Patch has Nora’s keys, telling her that she dropped them at the arcade. Nora can’t get the keys to work, but Patch does. He teaches her how to make tacos and afterwards they do the dishes together. They flirt and Nora ends up on the counter with Patch kissing her shoulder. Her mom calls and she tells Patch that he has to leave. He does, reminding her of an invite to a party the next night. Vee calls Nora in the morning waking her up. She guesses that Patch kissed her and starts asking for details. Nora doesn’t really want to talk about it. They make plans for later. After hanging up with Vee, Nora remembers that her cell phone is supposed to be dead. Later while shopping, Nora notices the hooded figure following her again. Vee goes out in Nora’s jacket and the figure follows with a feminine walk. Nora goes to the car to follow. Her windshield is hit by her umbrella that Vee had been carrying. She gets out of the car and finds that Vee has been attacked and robbed. Nora goes back to the car and calls 911. Back at school, Nora is waiting for the day to pass so that she can visit Vee in the hospital. She notices that Patch is absent. Her teacher gives her a note to go and see the new school psychologist, Miss Greene. She does and she asks the same old questions about how she is dealing with her father’s death. She then tells Nora that she is only to tutor Patch on school property with supervision, but the reason cannot be discussed. Nora decides to go to the library to work on homework. She ends up on a computer and reads an article about a girl, Kjirsten, that supposedly hung herself in the woods. Elliot was questioned before the suicide note was found. Elliot comes in and Nora tries to hide the article that she was reading. He wants to take her out for dinner, but she comes up with some excuses and leaves. Nora goes to the hospital to visit Vee. Her friend is a little loopy from the drugs, but becomes more normal after a little time. Nora asks about the attack and whether or not the guy would match Elliot’s description. Vee says that the person that attacked her was more like Patch than Elliot. Nora tries to tell Vee about the article she read in the library, but Vee’s painkillers kick in again. Nora goes home. To do some investigating, Nora and Vee go to the restaurant where Patch works on his night off. When they get there Vee informs Nora that she has been dating Jules and invited him and Elliot to join them. However, Jules is absent because he is sick. They order their drinks and Nora slips off to change into her disguise so that she can question the bar tender about Patch. She doesn’t get too much useful information, but she does find out that Patch is currently there and working. She hurries off to the bathroom, locking the door behind her, to change back into her regular clothes. Patch is behind her and starts teasing her about her interrogation list. The locked door starts rattling and Patch leaves Nora in the bathroom wondering how he got in. Nora goes back to the table, claiming to be sick.Nora isn’t home long before her mom has to leave for work. She goes upstairs to change and sees her room has been rummaged through. The guy in the ski mask is there and jumps out the window. She calls the police, but everything is back to normal by the time they get there. The next day in biology, Nora and Vee are caught talking during an assignment. The teacher makes them switch lab partners and Nora is paired with Patch. After class, she goes to see Miss Greene. The psychiatrist asks Nora why she had Patch take her home from Delphic Park the previous Saturday. Nora explains and Miss Greene tells her to keep her distance from him.Nora walks to the library alone after school. On her way out, she gets into a verbal fight with Marcia and decides to use the back exit. Patch is in the dark alley that Nora is walking down and confronts her. Nora starts asking him questions, but he only gives vague answers. He offers a ride home and she decides that it is probably safer than walking alone in the dark. Patch asks her out and says he’ll pick her up at five on Saturday.On Saturday, Nora starts getting ready for her date with Patch. The police arrive and ask her some questions about her fight with Marcia. Nora finds out that she was beaten up. They leave and Patch arrives. He takes her to Bo’s Arcade to shoot pool. Patch’s friend Rixon shows up. The two guys fight a little and Patch’s shirt is ripped. Rixon gives him his sweatshirt. While Patch is changing, she sees an upside V-shaped scar on his back. Shortly after, they leave and Patch stops at an eatery. He goes in to get food and Nora takes the opportunity to search the car. She finds a flashlight with blood on it. Patch returns and explains it is not blood, but from paintball. He takes her home and gives her a snow globe containing Delphic Park. Nora’s mom shows up and questions him a little before he leaves.While on the phone with Vee, Nora remembers where she has seen Patch’s scar before: the Arch Angel ride at Delphic Park. She researches fallen angels and finds out that they can speak to people’s minds and inhabit their bodies for two weeks during Cheshvan, a month with no Jewish holidays. The child of a fallen angel and a human is a Nephilim.The next morning, Nora answers the door to find Elliot on the other side and drunk. He begs her to go camping with him, Jules, and Vee. When Nora declines, he gets angry and shoves her against the house. Her mom shows up and he lets her go, telling her that she will regret her decision not to go. Nora calls Vee and explains the situation.Nora drives out to Portland and visits the diner where Kjirsten worked before her death. After ordering a large amount of food and promising to leave a hefty tip, The waitress tells Nora what she knows. Elliot bought Kjirsten her apartment. Jules and Elliot came in one day. Jules had failed a test and Elliot was so mad about it that he stormed out.Vee texts Nora that she is at a party in Portland with Elliot and Jules, who just ran out to get something. Nora abandons her bus and starts heading to where Vee is. Along the way, she gets lost and sells her coat and hat to a bag lady for directions. She starts walking down an alley in the freezing whether when she hears something. A black sedan pulls up and kills the bag lady. Nora goes back for her phone, which she left in her coat pocket, but it is gone and so is the bag lady. She goes to a phone booth and calls Patch for a ride. He picks her up and starts taking her back to Coldwater. His jeep breaks down on the way and they decide to walk to the next exit. The winter storm picks up and Nora and Patch find a motel. Their power and phones are out, so they end up having to rent a room. They each shower and leave their clothes out to dry. Nora sees Patch’s scar and touches it. She is sucked into a vision of his past from before he knew her. Dabria, his ex-girlfirend, comes to tell him that if he saves someone’s life, he will become a guardian angel. She tells him to give up on the book of Enoch because what he is trying to do isn’t right. He asks for the name of the person that he’s supposed to save. Dabria accidently lets Nora’s name slip out. She then sees Patch trying to kill her. Nora returns and is scared. Patch explains that he tried to kill her, but couldn’t go through with it. Nora asks to touch his scars again, to show a sign of trust. He complies. She sees Patch talking with Rixon, trying to make a decision. As it turns out, the body of a fallen angel can’t feel anything. He can either save a human life and become a guardian angel or kill his human vassel (the human he inhabits two weeks of the year during Cheshvan) and become human. Rixon says that he doesn’t believe the second option is anything more than a fairy tale. When she comes back to the present, Patch explains that he fell because he fell in love with a human girl thought it would make him human. He doesn’t want to become a guardian angel. Nora tells him that Dabria is working at the school and Patch decides that he needs to go check out her intentions. Patch takes Nora home and leaves her to search the school. Dabria shows up wanting to kill Nora so that Patch will return to her. She explains that if Patch kills Nora, the female descendant of his vassel, Chauncey, he will become human according to the Book of Enoch. Dabria starts burning down the house to assure that Nora will die. Nora calls the police. Patch shows up and tells her to get in his Jeep and drive to Delphic Park. She starts driving and calls Vee, who is not answering. She calls Vee’s parent’s phone and her mom tells her that Vee is out at a movie. Nora decides to look for her.Starting at the theater, Nora buys a ticket and goes in looking for her friend. She sits down in a movie and Patch shows up behind her. She tells him to go away (to the annoyance of the people near her) and he refuses. She storms into the girls bathroom and he follows her. He tells her that he doesn’t want to sacrifice her, that he actually wants to be with her. He eventually convinces her. Vee calls and interrupts their kissing, wanting Nora to come to the school to play hide and seek with her, Jules, and Elliot. Elliot comes over the phone and threatens Vee’s life if Nora doesn’t show.Patch want to go help Vee and will only let Nora go if she promises to listen to him. When they get out to Patch’s Jeep, the tires are flat from being stabbed. Patch wants to steal a car, but Nora talks him out of it. She goes up to a guy that she used to tutor and asks to borrow his car. Patch pays him off when he says no. They get to the school and Nora waits in the car while Patch goes to check things out.Nora gets a call from Elliot, letting her know that he can see her from a second story window. She goes into the darkened school and first finds Jules’ body. She continues along to find Elliot dying in the library. Just as she’s leaving the library, Jules comes up to her. She runs to the biology room and grabs a scalpel before he comes in. He temporarily disables her and tells her that he is really Chauncey, Patch’s vessel. He wants to hurt Nora (whom Patch loves) to get back at him for using his body for two weeks of every year since he was 16 (Nephilim are immortal). Nora is able to stab him with the scalpel, and after some scuffling, he collapses to the ground.Going up to the top floor of the school, Nora finds Vee in the eZine classroom. She gets her out and tells her that they are going to get out of the school, split up, and run for help. Chauncey finds them before they can get out. Nora tells Vee to run for help and she listens. Nora heads for the gym, figuring that she can hide in the locker room. However the door to the locker room is locked. Chauncey catches up with her and has a gun pointed at her head. Patch enters her body to try to choke him out. Before he passes out, Patch is forced to leave Nora’s body. She can’t get out the door, so she goes up a ladder to the rafters and an air shaft. She starts climbing and the ladder starts to fall. Patch’s voice comes in her head and tells her that it is just an illusion. She listens and makes it to the rafters, but Chauncey is following. She decides to sacrifice herself rather than letting Chauncey kill her and throws herself off of the rafters. Nora wakes up in bed, surprised that she’s not dead. Patch explains that he turned down her sacrifice because he didn’t see the point in being human if she was dead. The sacrifice killed Chauncey, and he should’ve come back to life with she did. However, he didn’t have a soul to reanimate his body. Nora’s mom comes home and starts freaking out when she sees the damage to the house.Nora talks to Vee and says that she doesn’t remember much of what happened. Vee tells her that Patch called her to tell her what happened, but she still thinks that Patch killed Jules. The police come by to get a statement about the fire and Nora tells them most of the truth about Miss Greene. Nora’s mom is having a security system installed in the house and Patch comes to hook it all up, saying that it is his new job.

About the Blogger

My name is Michelle, and I like to read... a lot. As I read a book, I take notes after each chapter. When I finish the book, I type out a summary and post it in this blog.It has taken me a while to find a process that really works. Some of my older summaries will be short and just summarize the overall plot.